Democratic legitimacy beyond the nation state

Sammanfattning: In this thesis the democratic legitimacy of transnational governance arrangements is examined normatively. The ambition is to take on a pragmatic viewpoint and the democracy perspective outlined with this in mind provides us with three aspects that should be considered in order to obtain democratic legitimacy. On the normative side of democratic legitimacy we have the principle of self-determination and the principle of non-domination, however, the sociological dimension of legitimacy also has to be considered. The challenge discussed is how to assign those significantly affected, the possibility to through democratic mechanisms influence the governance. Due to the lack of identification beyond the nation state it is argued in this thesis that simply carbon copying domestic institutions into the transnational realm may be inappropriate. Instead the enhancement of public scrutiny through increased transparency and inclusion of the transnational public sphere, e.g. through the representation of NGOs, is discussed as a more feasible way for protecting the democratic values in transnational governance. Also, the significance of more honest demarcations regarding redistributive and regulatory functions of transnational governance arrangements is stressed. The final issue examined is the implications on the democratic legitimacy brought forth by the current power-biases in much of contemporary transnational governance.