International Legitimacy: Should Democratic Institutions Be Required At States Domestic Level?

ADÉN, ERCILIA IRENE

Leuven

Workshop; Joint Córdoba/Leuven Workshop on Federalism; 2018

KU Leuven/UNC

Some scholars affirm that international decision-making processes among both democratic and non-democratic yet decent States satisfy international legitimacy requirements. The aim of this paper is to show that the moral cosmopolitan approach concerned with the equal advancement of interests of citizens all over the world is compatible with the named view. More over, it will be affirmed that domestic equal participation of individuals is morally irrelevant when considering the legitimacy of decisions taken in the international arena through mechanisms based on States equal participation. As a result, grounding a universal right to democracy at States domestic level on the egalitarian argument proposed by Thomas Christiano will be rejected.