ABSTRACT
The former is awkward to define precisely but denotes the capacity of the leading institutions and mechanisms of global governance of the system of governance in effect to manage competently not only the routine ebbs and flows of the global economy but also its continuously changing sectoral and structural nature. Conceptually the modern history of global governance can be seen as an unfolding series of crises generated at different moments either by efficiency gaps or legitimacy deficits or indeed both at the same time. These crises play out as key inflection points within which opportunities arise for the underdeveloped or developing or Southern countries to press for adjustments to the existing mode of global governance in their collective favour, but at the same time obstacles to those changes are erected by the dominant group of developed or Western or Northern countries. A new balance of sorts is eventually achieved and lasts after a fashion until the next moment of crisis.
