International organizations and democracy: an assessment

How should we judge existing international organizations? Cosmopolitans often assess such institutions against non-existent but plausible alternative ones. By contrast, this chapter assesses the effect of institutions relative to situations in which they are absent. It first disaggregates ‘democracy’ into a number of constituent principles, falling under the demos dimension (who are the people?), and the kratos dimension (how do the people rule?). It then systematically assesses the recent empirical literature on the impact of international institutions on each of the principles identified. Overall a mixed picture emerges. Not only are there significant differences among international organizations, but sometimes the same organization appears to improve a dimension of democracy while being detrimental to another. It gives reason for cosmopolitans to conduct or encourage further empirical research aiming at identifying institutional designs that can enhance several dimensions of democracy at the same time.