A growing number of progressive intellectuals now claim that the transnational character of many present-day political tasks overwhelms the existing capacities of liberal democracy. The ongoing internationalization of capitalist production and financial markets, unparalleled movements of immigrants and refugees across borders, the spectre of ecological disaster: the global character of each of these problems allegedly cries out for new forms of global political coordination. In this view, the marriage of liberal democracy to the nation-state severely limits its ability to grapple effectively with the most pressing dilemmas of our times. Transnational problems call out for transnational solutions, and only an invigoration and concurrent democratization of supernational political authority offers a reasonable chance of stemming liberal democracy’s decay in the face of recent global trends.1 Proponents of this thesis, including Jürgen Habermas, typically argue that we can only maintain the historic achievements of liberal democracy (including the welfare state) if global regulatory devices can succeed effectively in countering transnationally based structural pressures on existing liberal democratic political institutions. For Habermas and many others, we can only ‘catch up’ to the transnational character of present-day political problems by strengthening international devices while simultaneously bracing their liberal democratic features.2 Although much can be […]
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