Whither global democracy?

The political optimism of the immediate aftermath of the Cold War was accompanied by an upsurge in scholarly attention to the question of democratic global governance. However, the past decade and a half has seen a ‘globalization backlash’ that has eroded faith in both the feasibility and desirability of strong global institutions. These developments raise important questions for the future of research into the application of democratic principles to international governance arrangements. This article reviews three recent attempts, from Luis Cabrera, Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, and Hans Agné, to theorise democracy beyond the state. The three authors converge in seeking insights into democratic global governance in the interaction of empirical and normative themes, though they also identify potentially divergent paths of inquiry for the future of the global democracy research programme.