Human Rights and Global Democracy by Michael Goodhart

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The article addresses human rights in relation to global democracy. There has been a trend toward integration of world countries. Although with various benefits, globalization brings about various issues. One of the major issues is democratic control of supranational governance bodies such as European Community and I M F. The other issue in global democracy is great disparity of member states over political issue such as terrorism, global climate and economic development. The other challenge in global democracy is on representation in global decisions. Wealthy countries seem to dominate on global decision while other countries take minimal roles. The author reviews democratic theorists’ approaches to the challenge and relate them to human rights. The author looks into compatibility of global democracy theories and human rights. The author makes an argument for importance of human rights in global democracy.

According to the author, globalization implies extension of social responsibility from an individual country or region to global level. In such global governance bodies, there are questions on their democratic legitimacy taking in consideration that they are not directly formed by the people. Globalization also implies the process toward the state of globalization. According to the author, there has been neglect on human rights issues in the process of globalization. Globalization has led to larger governance bodies such as intergovernmental organizations. In such governance bodies, there are questions on their democratic legitimacy taking in consideration that they are not directly formed by the people. The structures of intergovernmental organizations have led to most decisions not being based on democratic principles. The great influence of wealthy countries on intergovernmental organizations decision such as IMF is of great concern in global democracy.

According to Goodhart, global democracy should be viewed as re-establishing efficient constrains to power rather than transforming the various democracy models. The power constrains entail democratic agency that take into consideration of global diversity and interests. According to the author, achieving the objectives of global democracy require protection from supranational human rights body.

Analysis

Globalization has brought new challenges on global governance. Economic integration, intergovernmental organizations and possible political integration pose various challenges. One of the major challenges to global governance bodies is ensuring democracy. Goodhart argues that ensuring democracy calls for increased role of human rights. He argues that human rights can help to constrain power in intergovernmental organizations. Protecting human rights is one of the major roles of any government. As globalization implies extension of social responsibility from an individual country to global level, intergovernmental organizations should ensure that human rights are protected. The author claims that human rights provide a standard way of interpreting state based democracies. Human rights are universal. Although presented in different ways in various countries’ constitutions, the principles of human rights remains the same. By good translating, the humans rights will retain their original meanings but take into consideration of the new global context.

Global context comprise of various governance that are characterized by lack of a complete political framework. The author argues that human rights are necessary in order to achieve democracy in such a circumstance. He argues that the facts that human rights are based on individuals make them the appropriate way for ensuring democracy. The author further argues that global recognition of human rights provides a great strength to their use in restraining power. The author also argues that human rights do not require a political framework for their implementation and thus they can be implemented in the global context. In addition, the author argues that the fact that human rights express the aims rather than the way the aims will be achieved, provides a flexibility that is needed in a global context. Ensuring democracy in a context that does not have a political framework is challenging. Ensuring democracy requires that the parties involved having a common position on some issues. Since human rights states the universal rights of all individual, they can be used as foundation to global democracy. Every country recognizes human rights; application of these human rights in intergovernmental organizations decisions can ensure democracy. Global democracy should be independent of political framework, the fact that human right are higher than any political framework make them appropriate for global democracy. A global democracy requires flexibility. By only expressing the aims, human rights allow intergovernmental organization governance with various approaches to the aims.

Supranational human rights body can help in ensuring global democracy. A body with formalized rules that has authority over intergovernmental organizations can help to curtail power as well as provide fairness in global issues. Although the current human rights bodies have significant contribution to democracy, they have narrow focus on states and international organizations. By redefining human rights to include the rights of states, individual states in a global context will be protected from abuse by other states or intergovernmental organizations. By providing complaining mechanism for individuals and states can ensure fair participation in a global context. By strengthening universal jurisdictions, there would be an effective accountability that would ensure global democracy.

The author makes strong arguments for the need for supranational human rights regime. However, he fails to provide a convincing definition of democracy in the context of globalization. The approach for a supranational human right body also ignores various important issues. Democracy in the contexts of globalization should be inclusive of democracy as understood in the various countries involved. In essence, democracy entails fair representation in decision makings. It should be understood that individual parties in a global context have varied interest. Although universal human rights have been in existence for a long time, there are still infringements of human rights in various countries. Assuming that a supranational human right body will bring about outright global fairness is wrong. The author fails to address the influence of other factors such as economics, difference in development and political differences of member states.

Conclusion

I agree with the author on the need for a supranational human right regime. Globalization poses new challenges that current international regulatory bodies may not be able to handle. Globalization has brought about questions on fair representation in global decisions. Global democracy requires that the parties involved be fairly involved in global decisions. Considering that the current human rights bodies focus mostly on rights of individuals, there is needs for translating the rights in a global context. In this context the rights of individual states will be expressed. A supranational human rights regime that is supported by appropriate jurisdiction can ensure fairness in inter-state association as well as protect the rights of every individual in global context.

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Human Rights and Global Democracy by Michael Goodhart

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