Transnational democracy in the 21st century: Its origin, scope, procedure and limits

Democracy is one of the most contested concepts in political science and in related branches of social sciences such as international relations. However, democracy is not only a debatable notion but also a rich field of study, from being a concept which is idealized by theoretical and philosophical thought to its practice as a mode of administration. This study is intended to critically review transnational democracy from the standpoints of its scope/scale form/procedures, and possibilities/limits with regard to its theoretical and historical aspects. Since democracy is associated with many prefixes, the theories of transnational democracy are reviewed after the relevant definitions are made, and classical and modern theories of democracy are given. Generally, these approaches to transnational democracy could be broken into two categories which are liberal and radical theories. What is common in these two is that democratic principles and values have become universial and politics/policies and democracy should be taken into account in global terms. While liberal theories (liberal internationalism, deliberative democracy, cosmopolitan democracy) point out the mediacy of the state with representation/deliberation, radical theories (radical democratic pluralism, socialist internationalism, anarchist approach) embrace an approach in which the state is non-existent and democracy is practized in a direct manner. With the guidance of the relevant theories, it can be assumed that transnational democracy, politics and the governance across borders, has emerged out of the historical and material conditions/interactions as shown in the origin/background part in this work. The scope part deals with this relation with regard to the territoriality and depicts the 'gray area' in the globe that is neither fragmented by the states nor unified by a single government but filled by transnational organizations. Following part focuses on these institutions and the transformation of classical concepts like sovereignty, representation, and participation. The last part consists of critiques and problems of transnational democracy from the questioning of how democratic democracy is through the structural limits of transnational democracy and to the alternative models with investigating the prevailing term. Finally, this study is aimed to probe the up-to-date answers to the pristine problems of democracy as its political scope/domain and procedures have changed. Keywords: Democracy, Global Politics, Transnational Democracy, Institutions of International and Transnational Governance