PARALLEL SUMMITS 0F GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY

In recent decades supranational decision-makinghas greatly expanded, both as a result of theformal transfer of power to old and new inter-governmental organisations, such as the European Union and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and because of the emergence of informal supranational powers through inter-state agreements or cooper-ation, such as the G7/G8. This new supranational decision-making power has remained hidden and unaccountable to demo-cratic processes, and exercised largely by specialised government officials and international ‘technocrats’. Its most visible side has become, in the last two decades, a model of high-profile collective action on global issues by states and inter-governmental organisations: the international summit. Summits represent an important institutional innovation in the world system, combining the legitimacy of supranational organisations, the flexibility of informal meetings of states, and public displays of concern and action on current global problems. Summits have become more frequent and influential, with far-reaching policy consequences at the national level. In a world dominated by media and instant communication, where global problems are immediately visible everywhere, summits are often the media-oriented events which ‘show ’ that the powers-that-be are addressing them. Moreover, they are the visible part of the growing informal decision-making power on supranational issues. Summits are now a key element of the emerging governance system of an increasingly globalised world; they have widely differing natures, but their roles and activities include the following tasks, many of which may be combined in the same summit. Framing the issue. Summits define the issues o