Power without Representation: The Coherence and Closeness of a Transnational Governance Network

Transnational governance networks usually claim to represent at least an important part of global public opinion. In the absence of institutions that sustain this claim, they must constitute themselves and act in accordance with two opposing principles: coherence and openness. Both the legitimacy and efficacy of these networks depend on their ability to strike an appropriate balance between such principles. To analyze the practical challenges that derive from this need, this paper focuses on the North American Section (NAS) of the Trilateral Commission. A network-like organization bringing together leaders of several influential think tanks and outstanding personalities from business corporations, political organizations, academic institutions and media firms, NAS is a major player in North America’s transnational arena. To analyze it, we approach it in two steps. First, we review the membership of NAS at three levels: the entire NAS, its executive committee, and its three national groups. This analysis shows that even though NAS is highly coherent, it is excessively endogamous: rather than reflecting the diversity of North America, it only reunites a select group of U.S. or pro-US leaders, members of transnational corporations and partisans of free trade. Then, we focus on the agendas of the NAS’ annual regional meetings. This makes clear that, judged by the origins of participants and the subjects discussed, these meetings are very exclusive. Thus, our general conclusion is that NAS is a coherent but closed network, very powerful but scarcely representative. Although it is extraordinarily able to express the views and interests of a powerful elite, it fails to articulate the diversity of North America’s public opinion. Ironically, a network that promotes the use of “soft power” in the international arena—a power founded on opinion, rather than on force and material interests— heavily depends on the hard power of established hierarchies.