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Is democracy compatible with global institutions?

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  • Josep M. Colomer

    (Georgetown University)

Abstract

The salience and relevance of the currently existing global institutions raise the question of their compatibility with some reasonable notion of democracy. I hold that democracy, as a form of government based on social consent, can be operationalized with different institutional formulas, mostly depending on the territorial scale and the degree of conflict of interests of the issues submitted to collective decision-making. Democratic institutional formulas include the people’s assembly in small cities, party elections of representatives in large states, and expert accountable rulers at the global level. Analogously to how democracy was scaled up from the city level to the state level in early modern times, it needs to be scaled up to the global level by the design and adoption of appropriate institutional formulas.

Suggested Citation

  • Josep M. Colomer, 2016. "Is democracy compatible with global institutions?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 260-272, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:27:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s10602-016-9220-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10602-016-9220-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; Globalization; Democracy; Accountability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F5 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy

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