Here, the focus is on saving the idea of democracy against challenges of transnationalisation. Growing complexity and pluralisation of values seem to lower problem-solving capacities of western democratic nation-states'.
At the same time, decisions increasingly are made by intergovernmental bodies, which are still perceived as elitist or technocratic executive legislation. In the light of these challenges, citizens seem not only to challenge a particular government's legitimacy, but democracy itself.
In turn, political theory focuses on how to legitimise different forms and levels of governance. Is it possible to institutionalise democracy in multi-level governance (EU) or even in a global context – or do we need an alternative value-basis for a just political order?
Can transnational governance be democratically legitimate? On the other hand, democracy as a political practice is largely covered by empirically oriented political science.
Here, the main focus still is on the actual practices in and around the institutions of the democratic nation-state (voting behaviour, party politics, media coverage, protest movements, the role of deliberation and so on).
However, recent empirical research has reacted to the processes of transnationalisation. More attention is paid to the democratic characteristics of international or transnational sites of governance, mainly analysing their quality of deliberation.
Read more about the workshop (reconproject.eu)
Contacts:
Dr. Daniel Gaus or Prof. Dr. Christoph Humrich.