Souveraineté, démocratie et gouvernance mondiale chez David Held : le problème de la démocratie au-delà de l’État national
In the context of contemporary globalization, the development of a multi-layered structure of governance forces us to reexamine our understanding of the sovereignty of states and of the practice of democracy. Our objective consists in outlining the thinking of David Held concerning the consequences of these transformations of political governance on democratic theory. First, we shall analyze the consequences of the weakening of the sovereignty of states, from now on shared with diverse supranational organizations, on the theory of the modern democratic state. We shall see how Held responds to the democratic deficit noticed within these organizations, by adapting the principle of subsidiarity to the emerging multilayered system of governance, in order to restore the congruence between decision-makers and the recipients of political decisions, characteristic of the (liberal) democratic activity. Secondly, we shall present the normative foundations of the theoretical model which he recommends to ensure the democratization of this new system of governance. We shall see why today, according to Held, the pursuit of the democratic ideal requires the enactment of clusters of rights, inspired by social-democratic values, which it is necessary to set in the constitutional framework of all the institutions of governance of the contemporary world. Furthermore, we shall see what institutional objectives it is necessary to meet for the realization of a global social democracy. We shall end with a brief critical analysis of his interpretation of the principle of subsidiarity and of his top-down approach to processes leading to the democratization of supranational institutions.
Democracy Sovereignty Governance Cosmopolitanism Subsidiarity Social democracy