A Possible World: Democratic Transformation of Global Institutions

The scope and powers of international institutions--the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization--continue to grow with globalization. If democratic values are still sought after, then their deficit at international level must be addressed. This book surveys the range of proposals on the table, with an emphasis on feasibility. It describes and evaluates a wide spectrum of democratic reform proposals for the UN, World Bank and IMF, the WTO and international judicial institutions. It explores innovative ideas for empowering global civil society; a Global Truth Commission; referenda and a World Parliament; a debt arbitration mechanism and global taxation.

Heikki Patomäki is Professor of International Relations at the University of Helsinki. He is the author of Democratising Globalisation (Zed Books, 2001). Teivo Teivainen is Director of the Program on Democracy and Global Transformation at the San Marcos University in Lima, Peru. He is the author of Enter Economism, Exit Politics (Zed Books, 2002).

Introduction: How to Assess Global Democracy Initiatives? * Why Global Democracy? * What Global Democracy Initiatives? * Pre-conceptions * Justification * Political Support * Institutionally Conservative or Transformative? * Feasibility * The Structure of the Book * Part I: Reforming Existing Institutional Arrangements * The United Nations * Security Council * General Assembly * People's Assembly * Economic and Social Council * Making the UN more autonomous by financial reforms * The Bretton Woods Institutions * The International Monetary Fund * Proposals to Reform the IMF * The World Bank * Proposals to Reform the World Bank * The World Trade Organisation * The Structure and Purpose of the WTO * Proposals for democratic reforms of the WTO * Are WTO Reforms Politically Possible? * International Courts * The International Court of Justice * International Criminal Court * Conclusion * Part II: Creating New Institutional Arrangements * Empowering Global Civil Society * Late 20th Century Rise of Transnational Political Organisations * The World Social Forum * Global Truth Commission * The Purpose of National Truth Commissions * Global truth commission * World Parliament and Global Referendum * Problems of global federalism * World referendum * Debt Arbitration Mechanism * The Late 20th * Early 21st Century Debt Problem * Proposals for Resolving the Debt Crisis * Global Tax Organisations * Currency Transaction Tax Organisation * Greenhouse Gas Tax * Conclusions * Part III: A Strategy * Conservative vs. Transformative Proposals * Outline of a Strategy for Global Democratic Change