Global Stakeholder Democracy Power and Representation Beyond Liberal States

by Macdonald, Terry

• ISBN13: 9780199235001
• ISBN10: 0199235007
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A pressing question at the forefront of current global political debates is: how can we salvage the democratic project in the context of 'globalization'? In recent years political activists have mounted high-profile campaigns for the democratization of powerful international institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, and for greater 'corporate accountability'. In turn, many of the NGOs linked to these campaigns have themselves faced demands for greater democratic legitimacy. Global Stakeholder Democracy responds to these challenges by outlining an innovative theoretical and institutional framework for democratizing the many state and non-state actors wielding public power in contemporary global politics. In doing so, the book lays out a promising new agenda for global democratic reform. Its analysis begins with the recognition that we cannot simply recreate traditional constitutional and electoral institutions of democratic states on a global scale, through the construction of a democratic 'super-state'. Rather, we must develop new kinds of democratic institutions capable of dealing with the realities of global pluralism, and democratizing powerful non-state actors as well as states. Through reflecting on the democratic dilemmas surrounding the political power of global NGOs, the book mounts a powerful challenge to the state-centric theoretical assumptions that have underpinned the established democratic theories of both 'cosmopolitan' and 'communitarian' liberals. In particular, it challenges the widespread assumption that 'sovereign' power, 'bounded' (national or global) societies, and 'electoral' processes are essential institutional foundations of a democratic system. The book then re-thinks the democratic project from its conceptual foundations, posing the questions: What needs to be controlled? Who ought to control it? How could they do so? In answering these questions, the book develops a novel theoretical model of representative democracy that is focused on plural (state and non-state) actors rather than on unitary state structures. It elaborates a democratic framework based on the new theoretical concepts of 'public power', 'stakeholder communities' and 'non-electoral representation', and illustrates the practical implications of these proposals for projects of global institutional reform.

Author Biography

Terry Macdonald was born and educated in Melbourne, Australia, before taking M.Phil and D.Phil degrees in International Relations from Oxford University (Nuffield College). She has previously held positions as a Research Fellow and Lecturer in Politics at Merton College, Oxford, and as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU), within the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE). She is currently employed as a Lecturer in Global Politics at Monash University, Melbourne.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The issues	p. 1
The project	p. 4
The strategy	p. 7
The argument	p. 12
The limitations	p. 16
Democratic Boundaries in the New Global Polity
Democracy Beyond 'Closed' Societies	p. 21
Introduction	p. 21
The standard theoretical model of a 'closed' democratic society	p. 23
Beyond 'closed' societies: A 'realist' democratic agenda	p. 29
Public power and political participation in a 'pluralist' democratic order	p. 35
Conclusions: Towards a 'pluralist' democratic global order	p. 40
Public Power Beyond 'Sovereign' States	p. 43
Introduction	p. 43
Assessing arguments for state-based accounts of public power	p. 44
Public power and the institutional practice of law-making	p. 45
Public power and the use of force	p. 51
Public power and centralized or 'constitutionalized' decision-making structures	p. 52
Conclusions	p. 61
The Public Power of NGOs in Global Politics	p. 62
Introduction	p. 62
Public power and influence in regulative social norm-building	p. 63
Public power and the imposition of material constraints	p. 71
Conclusions	p. 81
From Nation-States to 'Stakeholder' Communities	p. 83
Introduction	p. 83
The idea of democratic 'stakeholder' communities	p. 85
Delineating stakeholder communities in practice: stakeholders in the public power of NGOs	p. 92
Conclusions	p. 101
Democratic Representation in the New Global Polity
Global Social Choice Beyond Nation-State Representation	p. 105
Introduction	p. 105
A critique of social choice through 'national' representation	p. 107
A theoretical critique of the justificatory Burkean framework	p. 117
A critique of global social choice through state representation	p. 120
A 'liberal individualist' justification for state representation	p. 122
Conclusions	p. 138
Global Social Choice Through Multi-Stakeholder Representation	p. 139
Introduction	p. 139
The multi-stakeholder model of global constituencies	p. 140
'Liberal pluralist' interest representation as a justification for the multi-stakeholder model	p. 146
Strengths and weaknesses of the multi-stakeholder model of global representation	p. 150
Conclusions: The need for a hybrid model of global social choice	p. 160
Theorizing Global Representative Agency: Non-Electoral Authorization and Accountability	p. 163
Introduction	p. 163
Elections as mechanisms of stakeholder control	p. 165
Authorization and accountability as mechanisms of democratic stakeholder control	p. 170
The institutional mechanisms of authorization and accountability	p. 177
Conclusions	p. 192
Instituting Global Representative Agency: The Authorization and Accountability of NGOs	p. 193
Introduction	p. 193
The democratic authorization of NGOs in global politics	p. 194
The democratic accountability of NGOs in global politics	p. 211
The challenge of democratic equality	p. 218
Conclusions	p. 220
Conclusion	p. 223
Index	p. 231
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