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Transforming the Golden-Age Nation State pp 109–129Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Breaking the Nation State Shell: Prospects for Democratic Legitimacy in the International Domain

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Part of the book series: Transformations of the State ((TRST))

Abstract

The past decades have been marked by a diffusion of political decision-making competence from national governments towards functional international organizations. In this respect at least, the modern nation state is clearly losing ground in world politics. Since international organizations are remote from citizens and dominated by a non-elected elite of diplomats and experts, the concomitant disempowerment of national parliaments has been widely interpreted as a clear loss of democratic legitimacy and accountability (Dahl 1999). Some authors have claimed, however, that at least certain elements of democratic legitimacy may be reproduced beyond the borders of the state. In particular, it has been argued that institutionalizing political participation in international settings is a promising avenue towards enhancing the democratic quality of international and European governance (Nye 2001: 6; Clark 2003: 27; Nanz and Steffek 2004: 323; Scholte 2004: 233). From the vantage point of this debate, this chapter presents the results of a research project that probes into the prospects for the democratic legitimation of international governance through such participatory arrangements.

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Authors
  1. Jens Steffek
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carleton University, Canada

    Achim Hurrelmann (Assistant Professor of Political Science) (Assistant Professor of Political Science)

  2. University of Bremen, Germany

    Stephan Leibfried (Professor of Political Science), Kerstin Martens (Assistant Professor of International Relations) & Peter Mayer (Professor of International Relations) (Professor of Political Science),  (Assistant Professor of International Relations) &  (Professor of International Relations)

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© 2007 Jens Steffek

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Steffek, J. (2007). Breaking the Nation State Shell: Prospects for Democratic Legitimacy in the International Domain. In: Hurrelmann, A., Leibfried, S., Martens, K., Mayer, P. (eds) Transforming the Golden-Age Nation State. Transformations of the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230590861_6

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