Book Review: Terry Macdonald, Global Stakeholder Democracy: Power and Representation Beyond Liberal States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, 280 pp., £45.00 hbk)
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298110400011219 |
| Author | Kelly Gerard |
| Published date | 01 September 2011 |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
218 Millennium: Journal of International Studies 40(1)
Terry Macdonald, Global Stakeholder Democracy: Power and Representation Beyond Liberal States
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, 280 pp., £45.00 hbk).
This volume is a highly significant contribution to normative political theory given that
it outlines realistic ways in which global decision-making can be reformed to incorporate
a range of state and non-state actors exercising public power. In doing so, it seeks to
address the ever-growing complexity of contemporary global politics. The increasing
disjoint between the ‘institutionally integrated world of the territorial nation state’ (p.
230) and non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs’) vociferous campaigns for the reform
of global power structures are indicative of this increasingly complex situation. This
book adopts a practical ‘realist’ approach to examine how global power politics should
be reformed to address these issues, whereby Macdonald develops ‘a framework that
sketches a realistic rather than a utopian path towards global democratization’ (p. 18).
This approach fills an important gap in the literature. As outlined by Macdonald, the
existing literature generally tends to adopt an ‘idealist’ perspective when examining
global political legitimacy, and, as a result, theorists focus on ‘abstract questions of rights
and duties’ (p. 4). Instead, this volume reflects on ‘non-ideal’ questions, leading to a criti-
cal discussion of traditional democratic issues of power and representation. From this
starting point, it becomes clear that rather than focusing on the replication of democratic
institutions and practices at a global level by creating a ‘world parliament’, which overturns
the existing institutional structures of global politics, democrats should instead work
within the existing framework. The volume subsequently puts forward compelling argu-
ments describing how to pursue pragmatic paths towards global democratisation, high-
lighting how the power of non-state actors such as NGOs is constrained within ostensibly
representative institutions.
The book is divided into two sections. The first identifies the boundaries of democratic
societies in global politics, as well as the subjects and agents of democratic control. It
begins by reflecting on the theoretical ideals of cosmopolitan and communitarian demo-
crats, noting that both assume democracy must take place within a ‘closed’ society where
‘there is an agency of public power as its subject of democratic control, and a community
of citizens as its agent of democratic control’ (p. 23). The book challenges this assumption,
noting that global public power is not allocated to regulatory agencies in a democratic
manner. A pluralist liberal-democratic order is the preferred alternative, where ‘multiple
agents of public power [are] held to account by multiple overlapping stakeholder com-
munities’ (p. 23). This is because it better reflects the existing global institutional structure.
The book proceeds to suggest how some forms of NGO power can be public and, conse-
quently, should be constrained by democratic controls, and continues on to suggest how
members of stakeholder communities can be identified. The second section of the book
develops the framework of legitimate institutions for representative decision-making. It
begins by examining how stakeholder communities can identify their interests to be pre-
sented by representatives in global policymaking. It then examines how representatives of
stakeholder communities can be identified as legitimate wielders of public power.
The realist agenda of this volume is refreshing, and it is employed throughout. Chapter
One argues that the existing structural framework of global public power is not the
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