Global Public Policy Institute
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09 February 2009
GPPi participates in discussion on “Democracy and Global Governance”
GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner participated in a panel discussion on “Democracy and Global Governance” in Bremen on 6 February 2009. The panel was part of the conference on “Demokratie wagen!” in which the Heinrich Boell Foundation in cooperation with the University of Bremen examined the meaning of Willy Brandt’s rallying cry for our age. The panel was moderated by Klaus Dingwerth, University of Bremen. Other panelists included Felix Pahl, Die Grünen and Tine Hanrieder, University of Bremen.
In his remarks, Benner emphasized that there is no consensus on how to operationalize democracy for global governance institutions. A mainstream left-liberal agenda includes more participation rights for civil society organizations and greater transparency. A more ambitious version points to “cosmopolitan democracy” including a global parliament. Other versions reject such efforts to go beyond the core of state sovereignty. They advocate global democracy as giving one vote to every sovereign country at the UN – and not ceding influence to NGOs. Yet others contend that only an alliance of sovereign democratic countries (a “League of Democracies”) could be a legitimate forum for global governance.
Drawing on the work by Allen Buchanan and Robert Keohane, Benner proposed a minimalist standard for global governance institutions to be considered legitimate: moral integrity (no implication in violation of human rights), comparative advantage (the institution works better than institutional alternatives), institutional integrity (proper procedures and redress) as well as the openness to scrutiny (transparency and accountability, producing meaningful independently verifiable information on its activities).
To download the program please click here.
For more information please contact Thorsten Benner