The Deficits of Democratic Representation in Global Politics

Abstract

The idea of state autonomy has framed our modern democratic paradigm. For the past century (at least), political theorists have argued incessantly about the meaning of democracy, but for the most part have linked democratic ideals with an autonomous society bounded by the territorial borders of the nation-state. Indeed, as Walter Lippmann (1997[1922]: 172) puts it, democratic theory requires ‘as little disturbance as possible of the premise of a self-contained community.’ Furthermore, the associated image of Westphalian sovereignty has served to maintain the sharp distinction between domestic and international realms, allowing many democratic theorists to legitimately ignore the wider global context in which national democracies are embedded. Today, however, the increased prominence of cross-border issues has highlighted the uneven ways in which processes of globalization has impacted on the political autonomy of nation-states and blurred the boundaries between domestic and international issues. The accompanying proliferation of supranational institutions with considerable decision-making power but questionable democratic credentials has focused attention on so-called democratic deficits in global politics. In this environment, serious questions are raised about the future of democratic life if we maintain an exclusive relationship between democracy and the nation-state under conditions of contemporary globalization.