Global Governance, Dam Conflicts, and Participation

Globalization, as presently conducted, is governed badly. Large dams, long viewed as beneficial and essential to development, have become sites of major social conflict. Participatory decision-making by "affected" populations in macro sectors of development is viewed by many as impossible, notwithstanding its advocacy by the World Commission on Dams on the basis of its "rights and risks" approach. Brazilian initiatives in participatory governance in varied macro sectors, especially in water/dam policy, show that macro participation is feasible. Lessons yielded by dam conflicts in Northeast Brazil suggest how authentic participation can occur in water/dam policy and other arenas of globalization.