Regionalisation, Transnational Democracy and United Nations Reform: A Viewpoint

Abstract

Regional organisations can contribute to the reform and, in particular, democratisation of the United Nations Organisation in two distinct ways: (1) through their very existence – since regional cooperation across national borders, especially in its institutionalised form, strengthens the tendency towards global multipolarity, the only form of world order in which the UN can properly function as intergovernmental organisation that is built on the philosophy of collective action (‘collective security’) – and (2) through the development of procedures of democratic decision-making in a transnational space – as in the case of the European Union – that can serve as exemplary standards for intergovernmental cooperation and the rule of law at the global level. These procedural matters include, inter alia, regulations for the separation of powers, the distinct role of legislative (parliamentary) branches in transnational structures, weighted voting, etc.