Legitimizing Global Economic Governance Through Transnational Parliamentarization: The Parliamentary Dimensions of the WTO and the World Bank
TranState Working Paper No. 136
40 Pages Posted: 31 Dec 2010
Date Written: December 30, 2010
Abstract
This paper discusses the potential contribution of parliamentary institutions and networks to the democratization of global economic governance. It places the analysis in the context of the larger debate on the democratic deficit of international economic institutions, in particular the WTO. On a theoretical level, the paper distinguishes different notions of legitimacy and democracy in order to identify which aspects of democratic legitimacy of global economic governance can be addressed through transnational parliamentarization. It is argued that national parliaments must react to the emergence of global economic governance in a multi-level system through new forms of transnational parliamentarization. In its empirical part, the paper assesses the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO (PCWTO) and the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) as two examples of such transnational parliamentarization. Drawing on the theory of deliberative democracy the paper argues that the contribution of these settings to democratic global governance should not be measured on the basis of their formal decision-making power but with regard to their role as fora for transnational discourses and on their potential to empower national parliamentarians.
Keywords: Democratic Legitimacy, Global Economic Governance, Parliamentary Conference on the WTO (PCWTO), Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB)
JEL Classification: F13, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation