ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book borrows insights from various strands of work on regionalism, global governance, transnational civil society and domestic democracy in order to answer the question of whether RIOs make the gap between governing elites and their constituencies which has resulted from processes of regionalization and globalization wider or smaller. It explores the issue from different angles, not focusing on a single RIO but assessing and explaining similarities and differences between RIOs in terms of legitimacy and democracy. The book also explores the key concepts and answers the question of the conceptualization of legitimacy and democracy in non-national political systems and the question of to what extent RIOs display input legitimacy, control legitimacy and output legitimacy. It examines the potential role of non-state actors in remedying the loss of democracy and legitimacy resulting from regionalization.
