Democratizing Global Governance: A Minimalist Perspective

Abstract

Proposals for democratizing global governance are often made in pure normative terms, remaining oblivious of the power dimension involved in such a process. Although formulated in rather pretentious language of the policy maker, in reality they read like ‘wish lists’ of well-meaning democrats addressed to non-competent, often even non-existent, global authorities. It is high time that such proposals, for them to be taken seriously, are grounded in the emergent empirical reality (of the post–cold war world) and account for the changes that have occurred in the organizational structure of the global power system.