Introduction: Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics

Abstract

It is now widely assumed that the processes of economic globalization and political internationalization have led to the demise of the so-called ‘national constellation’ that characterized the political reality of western democracies in the aftermath of the Second World War (Zurn 1998a; Albrow 2003;Leibfried and Zurn 2005;Hurrelmann et al. 2007). Although the contours of the evolving ‘post-national constellation’ (Habermas 1998) remain vague, it is clear that democratic nation states have lost much of their erstwhile autonomy vis-a-vis international regimes and organizations, the European Union, and non-state actors. Due to the internationalization and privatization of decision-making competencies, and to the increasing pressure from financial and business interests, nation states now find themselves tied into a web of multiple and interconnected centres and layers of political authority. Their citizens, whether or not they are fully aware of it, have come to live in an age of global politics in which many decisions that affect their lives are taken in political arenas beyond nation-state control.