Page 216 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

202 Globalization and Democracy

5.2 Democracy, Human Rights, and International
Political Institutions

David Held argues that globalization requires democratization of global
governance. The cosmopolitan democracy he advocates involves three
main principles. First, cosmopolitan law must be developed as a kind of
global constitution to guarantee rights for all. Second, Inter - Governmental
Organizations must become more democratic and more effective. In the
short - term, this involves reforming existing IGOs to make them more
transparent and accountable, especially the UN system; but in the long -
term Held envisages a global parliament, making law and policy. Law
made democratically should, he argues, be enforced, by military means if
necessary. Third, democratic participation should be organized in terms
of “ subsidiarity ” : governmental decisions should be made as locally as
possible to maximize accountability and the participation of those affected
by particular issues. This means establishing transnational regional politi-
cal institutions like the EU in other parts of the world in order to deal
with economic regulation more effectively. It also means supporting
democratization at the sub - national level. Held ’ s ideal of cosmopolitan
democracy is that of political and legal institutions nested within each
other, from local to global, with decisions being made through participa-
tion at the appropriate scale for “ all affected ” by a particular issue.
Popular participation in decision - making is to be guaranteed by rights

codified in cosmopolitan law. Although Held denies that cosmopolitan
democracy requires a world state, as Nadia Urbinati points out, the
cosmopolitical order he proposes nevertheless resembles a “ state - like sov-
ereign ” (Urbinati, 2003 : 73; Held, 1995a, 1995b, 1998, 2003, 2004 ; Held
and McGrew, 2002 ). Moreover, Held does anticipate that eventually the
nation - state will “ wither away, ” absorbed into the structures that it
helped establish to enable more opportunities for democratic participation
around the world (Held, 1999 : 106).
For critics of cosmopolitan democracy, on the other hand, it is still
much more important to support democratic institutions that have been
established at the national level. In the fi rst place, this involves a commit-
ment to the continuation of states, largely on the pragmatic grounds that
they will not simply “ wither away. ” McGrew, for example, argues that
states are still the most important actors in global governance, and they
cannot easily be displaced to make it more democratic. International
political institutions like the UN themselves rely on states, especially on