Could global democracy satisfy diverse policy values? An empirical analysis

An important strand in contemporary political theory argues that democratic methods of political decision-making should be extended to the global level. But are people’s fundamental views on public policy issue too diverse across the world for democracy? We examine systematically the empirical basis of two related concerns: that global democratic decision-making would leave more people dissatisfied with the outcome of decisions than keeping democratic decision-making within national settings, and that it would increase the risk of persistent minorities, that is, groups who are systematically outvoted on most policy issues they care about. Using opinion polls covering 86 percent of the world population, we compare the distribution of policy values within countries to the distribution of policy values in the world as a whole. We find that the amount of dissatisfaction with policy and the risk of persistent minorities would not increase in a global democratic polity compared to individual states.