Does stakeholder involvement foster democratic legitimacy in international organizations? An empirical assessment of a normative theory

• The involvement of non-state organizations in global governance is widely seen as an important step toward global democracy. Proponents of "stakeholder democracy" argue that stakeholder organizations, such as civil society groups and other non-state actors, may represent people significantly affected by global decisions better than elected governments. In this article we identify a particularly promising sociological variant of this argument, test it against new evidence from a large-scale survey among stakeholder organizations with varying levels of involvement in international organizations (IOs), and find that the suggested stakeholder mechanism for producing democratic legitimacy in global governance does not work. Stakeholder involvement is unproductive for democratic legitimacy in IOs as perceived by stakeholders themselves. We suggest alternative explanations of this finding and argue that empirical analysis is useful for adjudicating normative arguments on the viability of stakeholder democracy in global governance.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Globaliseringsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Globalisation Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Democracy

Democratic theory

Normative theory

Civil society

Stakeholder democracy

Global democracy

Legitimacy

Global governance

International organizations

Non-state actors

UN

Political Science

statsvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)