ABSTRACT
A contradictory double movement characterizes the relationship of contemporary international affairs to democracy. While the conventional democratic assumption, according to which individuals have the right to self-determination through political participation, is increasingly recognized as the cardinal principle of politics both in international covenants and national constitutions, international affairs themselves conversely create a situation in which such an entitlement is limited and decreasingly guaranteed. Unstable financial markets, environmental crises, and unregulated migratory flows are just a few examples of phenomena that simultaneously and all too clearly remind us of the intense interdependence of the contemporary international system as well as of its political deprivation. These intense processes of global transformation functionally require increased cooperation, and yet they pose a continuous challenge to the effectiveness and legitimacy of traditional political life. The lack, at every level of activity, of effective and legitimate political structures within which individuals can influence outcomes by expressing their free consent and exercising their capacity for autonomy, highlights the need for an adequate expansion of the democratic political system at the global level. A fundamental principle of justice thus demands that strengthening transnational institutions of democracy be strengthened, with the intention to create more inclusive mechanisms of democratic self-legislation in order to avoid perpetuating the current high degree of transnational exclusion.
