Cosmopolitan democracy

Cosmopolitan democracy is a political theory which explores the application of norms and values of democracy at different levels, from global to local. It is about what global governance of the people, by the people, to the people can mean. The academic advocates of cosmopolitan democracy include David Held^[1], Daniele Archibugi^[2],^[3], Richard Falk^[4], and Mary Kaldor^[5]. In the Cosmopolitan Democracy model, decisions are made by those citizens that are affected by them, avoiding a single hierarchical form of authority. According to the nature of the issues at stake, democratic practice should be reinvented to take into account the will of stakeholders. This can be done either through direct participation or through elected representatives.^[6]. The model advocated by cosmopolitan democrats is decentralized - global governance without world government, unlike those models of global governance supported by classic World Federalism thinkers, such as Albert Einstein.

Origin and development

The victory of Western liberal states ending the Cold War inspired the hope that international relations could be guided by the ideals of democracy and the rule of law. In the early 1990s, a group of thinkers developed the political project of cosmopolitan democracy with the aim of providing intellectual arguments in favour of an expansion of democracy, both within states and at the global level. While some significant successes have been achieved in terms of democratization within states, much less has been attained in democratizing the global system.

In different forms, the necessity to expand democratic procedures beyond the nation-state has been supported by political philosopher Jürgen Habermas^[7], and sociologist Ulrich Beck ^[8].

Criticisms of cosmopolitan democracy have come from realist, marxist, communitarian and multicultural perspectives. Democratic theorist Robert Dahl^[9] has manifested his doubts about the possibility to expand significantly democracy in international organizations, as he believes that democracy diminishes with size. Opponents of Dahl's approach point to the fact that bigger countries are not necessarily less democratic. For example, there is no correlation between voters' turnout and population size, in fact voter's turnout is smallest in countries with less than 100,000 citizens.

Political programme

The idea of cosmopolitan democracy has been advocated with reference to the reform of international organizations. This include the institution of the International Criminal Court, the institution of a directly elected World Parliament or world assembly of governments, and more widely the democratization of international organizations.

References

1. ^ David Held, Democracy and the Global Order, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1995
2. ^ Daniele Archibugi, The Global Commonwealth of Citizens. Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2008
3. ^ Daniele Archibugi & David Held, eds., Cosmopolitan Democracy. An Agenda for a New World Order, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1995
4. ^ Richard Falk, On Humane Governance, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998
5. ^ Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1999
6. ^ Article on Cosmopolitan democracy by Daniele Archibugi
7. ^ Jürgen Habermas, The Post-National Constellation, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001
8. ^ Ulrich Beck, World Risk Society, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1999
9. ^ Robert Dahl, Can International Organizations be Democratic?, in Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker-Cordón (eds) (1999) Democracy’s Edges. New York: Cambridge University Press.

External links

• Cosmopolitan Democracy and its Critics: A Review
• The Global Transformations Website
• List of Global Democracy Initiatives

See also

• Cosmopolitanism
• Democratic mundialization
• United Nations Parliamentary Assembly