WP 9 examines the conditions and prospects of democratization in European transnational legal and political arrangements – and in postnational constellations more generally – with reference to two interconnected frameworks of analysis. Each framework provides the basis for a distinct sub-project.
A first ‘top-down’ framework and sub-project examines the impact of globalisation processes, in particular the liberal trading regime of the WTO, on nation state democracies and on the democratisation of the European Union.
A second ‘bottom-up’ framework and sub-project instead pursues the issue of regional democratization from a state-centred perspective. It focuses on Canada as a model of ‘state-based cosmopolitanism.’ This provides a comparative perspective from which to examine the democratic potential of the EU as a polity which, similar to Canada, possesses both high levels of regulatory centralization and institutional co-ordination and a resilient cultural pluralism.
Research from the project is published in academic journals and books, as well as in RECON’s publication series (reports and online working papers). A complete list of publications and presentations from WP 9 is available for each year of the project.
This research group organises a number of workshops and conferences. Complete list of WP 9 events.
