Legitimacy Beyond the State?: Re-examining the Democratic Credentials of Transnational Actors

233 Pages·2010·0.84 MB·English

by  Eva Erman

Legitimacy Beyond the State?
Relatedtitlesare:
DEMOCRACYBEYONDTHENATIONSTATE?TRANSNATIONALACTORSAND
GLOBALGOVERNANCE(EditedbyChristerJönssonandJonasTallberg)
Advisory board: Yale Ferguson, Jean Grugel, Richard Higgott, Margaret Keck,
Robert Keohane, Morten Ougaard, Nicola Piper, Thomas Risse, and Jan Aart
Scholte
Othertitlesintheseriesare:
TRANSNATIONALACTORS IN GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: Patterns, Explanations
andImplications(EditedbyChristerJönssonandJonasTallberg)
DEMOCRACYANDPUBLIC-PRIVATEPARTNERSHIPSINGLOBALGOVERNANCE
(EditedbyMagdalenaBexellandUlrikaMörth)
Legitimacy Beyond the
State?
Re-examining the Democratic Credentials
of Transnational Actors
Editedby
Eva Erman
StockholmUniversity,Sweden
Anders Uhlin
LundUniversity,Sweden
Selection,editorialmatterandIntroduction©EvaErmanand
AndersUhlin2010
Foreword©ChristerJönsson,JonasTallberg,EvaErmanand
AndersUhlin2010
Chapters©theirauthors2010
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-23907-4
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Contents
ListofTables vii
Foreword viii
NotesonContributors x
ListofAbbreviations xiii
Part I SettingtheScene
1 DemocraticCredentialsofTransnationalActors:An
Introduction 3
EvaErmanandAndersUhlin
2 DemocraticLegitimacyofTransnationalActors:Mapping
OuttheConceptualTerrain 16
AndersUhlin
Part II DemocraticCredentialsofDifferent
TransnationalActors
3 DemocraticLegitimacyofTransnationalCorporationsin
GlobalGovernance 41
DorisFuchs,AgniKalfagianni,andJuliaSattelberger
4 DemocraticLegitimacyofPhilanthropicFoundations:US
Grant-MakingintheMiddleEast 64
AnnVogel
5 GoodMoralsorGoodBusiness?NGOAdvocacyandthe
WorldBank’s10thIDA 85
ChristopherL.Pallas
6 TransnationalSocialMovementsandDemocratic
Legitimacy 110
BrigitteBeauzamy
7 DiasporaGroups,TransnationalActivism,andDemocratic
Legitimacy 130
CatarinaKinnvallandBoPetersson
v
vi Contents
Part III DemocraticProblemsandPossibilitiesina
TransnationalContext
8 DemocraticCredentialsorBridgingMechanisms?
Constituents,Representatives,andtheDualPoliticsof
DemocraticRepresentation 153
EnriquePeruzzotti
9 WhyAddingDemocraticValuesisNotEnoughforGlobal
Democracy 173
EvaErman
10 Conclusion:TransnationalActorsandGlobalDemocracy 194
EvaErmanandAndersUhlin
Index 214
List of Tables
2.1 Democraticlegitimacyoftransnationalactors:Key
democraticvalues 24
2.2 Questionsforevaluatingdemocraticlegitimacyof
transnationalactors 33
4.1 IllustrativegrantsbytheFordFoundationforhuman
rights,acoredemocraticvalue 79
vii
Foreword
This is one in a series of three edited volumes, published simulta-
neously. The other two are Transnational Actors in Global Governance:
Patterns, Explanations and Implications, edited by Christer Jönsson and
Jonas Tallberg; and Democracy and Public-Private Partnerships in Global
Governance, edited by Magdalena Bexell and Ulrika Mörth. All three
owe their origin to two partly overlapping research undertakings that
go under the labels of Transdemos and Transaccess. The full title of
the Transdemos program, which engages political scientists from Lund
and Stockholm University, is ‘Democracy Beyond the Nation State?
TransnationalActorsandGlobalGovernance’(seewww.transdemos.se).
Theprogramreceivesgenerouslong-termfundingfromtheRiksbankens
Jubileumsfond (RJ). Transaccess stands for ‘The Institutional Design
of International Institutions: Legitimacy, Effectiveness, and Distribu-
tion in Global Governance’ (see www.statsvet.su.se/English/Research/
transaccess.html). Located at Stockholm University, this project bene-
fitsfromasubstantialgrantfromtheEuropeanResearchCouncil(ERC).
ThefinancialcontributionsbyRJandERCaregratefullyacknowledged.
Both research initiatives commenced in 2008. Early on, the partic-
ipants agreed to draw on their extensive international contacts in a
joint effort to summarize extant research on transnational actors and
theirroleindemocratizingglobalgovernance.Weaskedpotentialcon-
tributors to characterize, and identify gaps in, our present knowledge,
theoretically as well as empirically. Thus, we aimed at volumes that
wouldnotonlyoutlinethestateoftheartbutalsosuggestnewresearch
problems and directions. The fact that, in a relatively short time, we
wereabletocollectthesethreevolumestestifiestotheenthusiasticand
obligingresponsetoourproposalamongthosewhowereaskedtopar-
ticipate. In April 2009, we arranged a workshop in Lund around the
themes of the three volumes. In addition to most of the contribut-
ing authors, several members of the international advisory board of
Transdemosparticipated.Weareallgratefulforconstructivecomments
on draft chapters by Yale Ferguson, Robert Keohane, Morten Ougaard,
NicolaPiper,andJanAartScholte.
The themes of the three volumes reflect the broad research ques-
tions of the Transdemos program. The first set of questions, which are
also central to the Transaccess project, concern the increasing partici-
pation by transnational actors in intergovernmental organizations and
viii
Foreword ix
global forums. Why, in what ways, and with what consequences are
transnationalactorsallowedintotraditionalglobalgovernanceinstitu-
tions? These questions are addressed, and expanded on, in the volume
edited by Jönsson and Tallberg. A second set of questions concern
the mushrooming in recent decades of so-called public–private part-
nerships as alternatives or complements to traditional international
organizationsintacklingglobalproblemareas.Whyhavethesehybrid
organizational entities emerged at this time? What different forms can
‘partnerships’ assume? Are they really the win–win solutions they are
often depicted as? The volume edited by Bexell and Mörth speaks to
these and other questions concerning public–private partnerships. A
finalsetofquestionsconcernthecharacteroftransnationalactorsthem-
selves.Howistheirexpandingroleinglobalgovernancelegitimized?As
transnationalactorsfrequentlyclaimtocontributetothedemocratiza-
tion of global governance, it is natural to raise questions concerning
their own democratic credentials. Their claims to speak on behalf of
deprived and voiceless groups in the world give rise to questions con-
cerning whom they represent and to whom they are accountable. This
problematiqueistreatedinthepresentvolume.
‘Democracy’ is a key concept in all three volumes, as in the
Transdemos program. The common notion that transnational actors
mayprovidearemedytothealleged‘democraticdeficit’ofglobalgov-
ernance,ingeneral,andinternationalorganizations,inparticular,isan
important focus of our inquiries. To critically examine this notion, we
havesolicitedcontributions,notonlyfromInternationalRelations(IR)
specialists, but also from political theorists. In addition to illuminat-
ingourthreethemesfromdifferentangles,thisraisescrucialquestions
concerningresearchdesign.HowcaninsightsfromempiricalIRstudies
be combined with normative political theory and how can future col-
laborative research involving both subdisciplines be organized? These
questions constitute challenges that are tentatively addressed in this
seriesofvolumes.
It is our hope that the three volumes, individually or in combina-
tion, will contribute to our knowledge of an increasingly important
aspect of IR and inspire new research efforts. The multifaceted role
of transnational actors in global governance remains an insufficiently
chartedterritory.
January2010
ChristerJönsson,LundJonasTallberg,Stockholm
DirectorTransdemosDirectorTransaccess
EvaErman,StockholmAndersUhlin,Lund