Gränslös demokrati

			About the project
			Researchers
			Associated researchers
			Publications
			Events
			Links
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Is it possible to realize democracy at a supranational or even global level? Is it desirable? These are the two questions that provide the focus for the research project "Democracy Unbound". The project involves researchers from four different disciplines (philosophy, law, psychology and history) and is funded by the Swedish Research Council. It is led by Professor Folke Tersman and based at the Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University.

For a presentation of the project, in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, follow this link.

The final conference within the project took place May 5-8, 2008, in Stockholm. For the conference web page, see.

About the project

In the last decades, we have witnessed the emergence of powerful supranational institutions in the political sphere. This development provides a response to problems that are difficult to handle at the national level. However, it might be held that its adequacy depends on the extent to which the institutions are democratic, or constrained by democratic decision-making processes. Indeed, it has been suggested that we should ultimately strive for a global democratic government, and that the development of bodies such as the EU is justified since it provides a step in that direction. Proposals of this kind provide the focus of our research project.

Some of the questions they raise are normative. For example, what form of democracy, if any, should we try to bring about at a supranational level? After all, there are different notions of democracy, some of which are more demanding than others, e.g., regarding the participation and influence of the citizens. The significance of this question is illustrated by the ongoing debate about the appropriate role of the European Parliament within the EU. Other questions are empirical, and rather concern the possibility of a successful implementation of democratic institutions at a supranational level. Thus, the main objection to the idea of a global democracy has been, not that it is undesirable, but that it is utopian and unrealistic. In order to assess objections of this kind we need to identify obstacles as well as factors that could prove favorable relative to the aim of bringing about a genuine supranational democracy.

These questions have dimensions and implications for several academic disciplines, which is why the project has a genuine multidisciplinary character.

Read the whole research proposal here [PDF; 140 K]

Researchers

Folke Tersman
Gustaf Arrhenius
Girts Dimdins
Magnus Jiborn
Thomas Kaiserfeld
Henry Montgomery
Paulo de Narvaja
Joakim Nergelius
Anna Petrén
May Thorseth
Torbjörn Tännsjö
Ola Zetterquist
Lars Bergström

Lars Bergström

Folke Tersman (project leader) is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University. He is the editor-in-chief of Tidskrift för politisk filosofi, a Swedish journal of political philosophy.

Gustaf Arrhenius is a Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University. He has written extensively on our moral obligations to future generations, applying the methods of social choice and game theory.

Girts Dimdins defended his doctoral thesis in psychology at Stockholm University in January 2004. His research deals with biases in intergroup perception.

Magnus Jiborn is a Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy at Lund University. His doctoral dissertation, Voluntary Coercion, examines the idea of a social contract from a gametheoretical point of view.

Thomas Kaiserfeld, Ph.D. in the History of Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, is currently holding a four-year research position (forskarassistenttjänst) funded by The Swedish Research Council. His research is devoted to the long-term development of the use of expertise in political decision-making.

Henry Montgomery is Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Stockholm University. His research interests include mental processes and structures associated with people’s values, attitudes, and decisions.

Paulo de Narvaja is a graduate student of philosophy at Stockholm University.

Joakim Nergelius. LL.D., Professor of Law at Örebro University, Sweden since 2003. His main areas of research are within constitutional law and EU law.

Anna Petrén is employed within the project as a graduate student.

May Thorseth, PhD, is Assoicate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, and the manager of its Programme for Applied Ethics .

Torbjörn Tännsjö is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University.

Ola Zetterquist is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of Lund University, Sweden. His main fields of teaching and research are EC-law, Human Rights law and questions of legal philosophy connected to constitutional theory.

Lars Bergström is Professor Emeritus at Stockholm University. He has made contributions to many different areas in philosophy and has published articles in, among other journals, Journal of Philosophy and Mind.

Associated researchers

Gillian Brock (Auckland)

Sven Danielsson (Uppsala)

Bob Goodin (RSSS, Canberra)

Carole Pateman (UCLA)

Frank Cunningham (University of Toronto)

Marc Fleurbaey (CNRS, Paris)

Andreas Føllesdal (Oslo)

Jörgen Hermansson (Uppsala)

Lena Halldenius (Lund)

David Held (LSE, London)

Philip Pettit (Princeton)

Publications

The results of the research are primarily published in the series Stockholm Studies in Democratic Theory (ISSN 1653-6584). It is published by Stockholms University and the volumes can be ordered through the Dpt of Philosophy at Stockholm University. So far, the following volumes have been published:

Democracy Unbound - Basic Explorations (edited by Folke Tersman), Stockholm Studies in Democratic Theory 1, 2005. (Read the introduction.)

Law, State and Democracy in Multi-level Governance (edited by Joakim Nergelius and Ola Zetterquist), Stockholm Studies in Democratic Theory 2, 2006.

The Viability and Desirability of Global Democracy (edited by Folke Tersman), Stockholm Studies in Democratic Theory 3, 2006. (Read the introduction.)

Other articles that have been published within the project include:

Torbjörn Tännsjö: Cosmopolitan Democracy Revisited, Public Affairs Quarterly (forthcoming).

May Thorseth: IT, multikulturalism och global demokrati – etiska utmaningar, Tidskrift för politisk filosofi nr 3, 2004.

Gustaf Arrhenius: The Boundary problem in Democratic Theory

Sofia Näström: Ett alternativt synsätt på demokrati, Tidskrift för politisk filosofi nr 2, 2005.

Bob Goodin: Mot ett internationellt lagstyre, Tidskrift för politisk filosofi nr 2, 2005.

Joakim Nergelius: Demokratins transformationer, Tidskrift för politisk filosofi nr 1, 2006.

May Thorseth: Worldwide Deliberation and Public Use of Reason Online, Ethics and Information Technology, vol. 8, no. 4, 2006, 243-53.

Ola Zetterquist: Maktdelning i den Europeiska Unionen - Vilka värden står på spel?", Retfaerd 110, 2005, pp 28-50.

Ola Zetterquist: "Access to Justice in the EU - Knocking on Heaven's Door?", in Swedish Studies in European Law, eds. Nils Wahl & Per Cramér, Hart Publishing, 2006.

Torbjörn Tännsjö: Global Democracy, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. For information about the book, follow this link.

Folke Tersman: Tillsammans. En filosofisk debattbok om hur vi kan rädda vårt klimat, Bonniers, 2009. (För några rättelser av korrfel i boken, följ denna länk).