Democratic Legitimacy Research Articles

NGOs and Global Business Regulation of Transnational Alcohol and Ultra-Processed Food Industries

Abstract The intensification of efforts by state and nonstate actors to address issues affecting global health has produced a patchwork of transnational regulatory governance. Within this field, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are expected to perform authoritative roles in holding business actors to account and enhance the democratic legitimacy of institutions via their participation in governance processes. While there exists a large body of conceptual and empirical research on global business regulation and private authority, we surprisingly know little about the governance functions of NGOs engaged in influencing the practices of corporations that produce health-harming commodities. This knowledge gap is especially pronounced in the issue area of noncommunicable diseases. This article begins to address this gap by mapping the networks of NGOs that engage in regulatory activities (rule-setting, monitoring, and enforcement) related to the (ultra)processed food and alcohol industries. We identify the networks of NGOs involved in global policy making across health, regulatory standards, and multistakeholder initiatives using nonstate actor submissions to consultations held by World Health Organization, UN Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), and the UN Global Compact. This paper examines NGO governance functions and their patterns of engagement and participation across institutional spheres. Overall, the article makes a twofold contribution to existing debates. First, we identify the governance functions through which NGOs attempt to hold corporations to account, contrasting their “watchdog” function with other governance functions. Second, we examine the representation of NGOs, highlighting asymmetries in participation of NGOs in the Global North and South.

Does Political Trust Matter? A Meta-analysis on the Consequences of Trust

AbstractPolitical trust has long been seen as fundamental for societal cooperation and democratic legitimacy. However, evidence about its consequences are partial and fragmented, and we do not currently have a systematic understanding of whether political trust warrants such vast attention. This paper conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis of 61 studies reporting 329 coefficients derived from over three and a half million observations globally. After synthesising the conceptual and theoretical frameworks in the extant literature, the meta-analysis results show that trust is weakly to moderately related to outcomes as diverse as voter turnout, vote choice, policy preferences and compliance, but is unrelated to informal participation. These results are robust to a range of considerations such as the measurement of trust, modelling strategy, region of study, publication bias, and design of the study. The review also highlights substantial geographical and methodological gaps, particularly the reliance on cross-sectional designs. Substantively, the results show that trust is importantly and robustly related to what people want from their political systems and how they interact with it. By systematically analysing the extant research, the paper provides a robust, systematic, and empirical foundation to advance research on political trust.

The Risk of Narrow, Disputable Results in the U.S. Electoral College

Abstract Close elections are important for many reasons, including that consequent election disputes can weaken democratic legitimacy and risk political violence. We quantify the probability of close outcomes in US presidential races with novel applications of empirical election models from several sources. We show that razor-thin margins are very likely under the Electoral College (EC). And we establish that the EC causes this closeness: It would not occur under any plausibly comparable popular vote system. The tendency of the EC to generate close elections is found today and throughout US presidential voting history.

Reconciling science and democracy: evidence-based policy as seen from the perspective of a role-based democratic theory

The question of whether policy can be informed by evidence and at the same time be democratically legitimate is contentious. The present article draws on the philosophy of democracy and role-based moral theory in order to inform a reconciliation of rigorous use of evidence with democratic legitimacy. The article argues that in order to realise the value of equality that underpins their offices, democratic officials have a special moral responsibility to utilise appropriate, high-quality evidence to identify the means by which to realise citizens’ democratically chosen aims, because utilising appropriate, high-quality evidence that addresses how to achieve citizens’ aims makes it more likely that their aims will be realised. Furthermore, the paper argues that when value judgments must be made in the employment of evidence for policy, these value judgments should ideally be made by elected representatives serving on scientific advisory committees.

Public access to documents in EU external relations

As the EU's competences and activities in the area of external relations expand, it becomes increasingly relevant for citizens and civil society to be able to access documents related to EU external action in order to effectively participate in the democratic life of the EU. Yet many of the documents held by EU institutions on external affairs potentially fall within the scope of the ‘international relations’ and ‘defence and military matters’ exceptions contained in the EU's Access to Documents Regulation 1049/2001. This contribution critically assesses the application of these exceptions by the Court of Justice of the EU, the Ombudsman and the EU institutions themselves, and identifies which rationales might warrant withholding access to specific types of documents that concern EU external relations. In light of the expansion of the EU's external competences, this article argues that EU institutions should properly substantiate any refusal to disclose a document in this field, and the CJEU should apply stronger judicial scrutiny of the use of these exceptions, in order to safeguard the fundamental right of access to documents, and safeguard the democratic legitimacy of decision-making in the EU.

Moving toward the Median: Compulsory Voting and Political Polarization

Should turning out to vote in mass elections be voluntary or compulsory? Previous normative arguments for compulsory voting often rely on contested normative claims about the moral duty to vote or about the democratic legitimacy conveyed by high turnout. Our article strengthens the normative case for compulsory voting by arguing that it could improve democracy by reducing polarization, which existing work suggests can lead to democratic backsliding. Drawing on spatial models of electoral competition, we argue that, by reducing more extreme voters’ ability to threaten to abstain due to alienation, the introduction of compulsory voting can push party platforms toward the median voter’s preferences. This directly decreases party polarization, defined as the distance between party platforms. We examine potential normative and empirical objections to this argument and provide scope conditions under which compulsory voting is likely to decrease polarization.

Problems in interim presidency: A comparative constitutional perspective

The research relevance is determined by the diverse constitutional approaches adopted by countries worldwide to address the critical issue of succession in the event of concurrent vacancies in the positions of President and Vice President. The study aims to correctly determine the appropriate acting presidency during extraordinary situations to ensure the continual rule of government. A doctrinal research method alongside a comparative constitutional approach to explore the constitutions of various countries. The study determined that there are legitimized and bureaucratic actors who compete with each other to become acting presidents when the positions of President and Vice President are vacant in various parts of the world. Countries that use legitimacy actors generally use the Speaker of the House of Representatives/Senate (legislative) as the acting president, while countries that use bureaucratic actors generally use ministers (executive) as the acting president. Legitimate actors are the officials to become acting presidents due to their capabilities to ensure stability based on democratic legitimacy stability, backed by votes. The practical value of this article is that it can be a source of knowledge for constitutional drafters when amending/changing the constitution because it has aggregated the arrangements for presidential duty executors from world constitutions and contributes knowledge from Indonesian experience that can be considered as material for discussion of constitutional amendments/changes

Proximity as urban democratic legitimacy: Strategies of participation in Buenos Aires

Since 2007, Buenos Aires has been governed by a centre-right coalition that has made participation an integral part of its approach to governance. Under mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta (2015–2023), the idea and practice of proximity became central, notably through weekly meetings with neighbours across the city. This article demonstrates that proximity was a strategy for building urban democratic legitimacy. In so doing, it introduces the work of Pierre Rosanvallon to an urban studies readership. Contemporary literature on urban participation is at risk of establishing ontologically fixed positions, as seen in recent debates on the ‘post-political city’. Rosanvallon’s legitimacy of proximity is an analytical device that provides an open and non-essential reading of participation. Based on extensive qualitative research, the article examines how and why Larreta and his city government deployed the strategy of proximity, while also highlighting its limits.

Populism as a Crisis of Democratic Legitimacy: With Some References to France and the United States

Populism as a Crisis of Democratic Legitimacy: With Some References to France and the United States

Privatization, Structural Dependence, and the Problem of Legitimacy

How should a normative evaluation of the merits and demerits of privatization proceed? In response to Joseph Heath’s approach to this question, I first argue that the difference between core and economic functions is not as relevant to establish the limits of privatization, as Heath suggests. I claim, second, that Heath problematically neglects the structural and aggregative effects of privatization. An instance of privatization that, if analyzed in isolation, is anodyne may no longer be so when seen as a further contribution to an already expansive process of privatization. Finally, I argue that Heath fails to consider the risks that pervasive privatization poses in terms of democratic legitimacy, by giving rise to a situation where, on the one hand, citizens are dominated by a privatized state and, on the other hand, the state itself is dominated by private actors.

Dynamic References To International Soft Law Agreements: Flexibility With Limits

The European Union relies increasingly on non-binding international agreements as a blueprint for its legislation on direct taxation. This implies converting a flexible soft law instrument into hard law that is subsequently difficult to amend due to the unanimity principle. A nascent trend to ensure that such Union legislation nevertheless stays in sync with future developments of the underlying soft law agreement are dynamic references to the latter. However, the scope for this approach is limited by the requirements of sufficient democratic legitimacy and legality of taxation, and respect for the institutional balance of the Union. Dynamic references to international soft law standards should therefore primarily be used as a source of interpretation or illustration for the concretization of already executable rules in the relevant EU legal act. They do not normally allow to incorporate also amendments and supplements of the original soft law agreement, unless additional safeguards exist that ensure compliance with the aforementioned Union law principles – at the expense of the desired flexibility, however. In this regard, the better approach would be the conferral of delegated powers upon the Commission to ensure a timely yet controlled alignment of the relevant Union tax legislation with new soft law standards. soft law, dynamic reference, democratic legitimacy, legality of taxation, institutional balance

Democratic legitimacy: a qualitative analysis of voter perceptions during the Bolsonaro government

Resumo: A eleição de Jair Bolsonaro em 2018, marcada pela ascensão global de líderes populistas de extrema direita, coincidiu com o declínio dos indicadores de apoio e satisfação com a democracia na América Latina. Diante desse contexto, este estudo explora o estado atual da legitimidade democrática no Brasil, introduzindo a abordagem qualitativa na agenda de pesquisas nacionais sobre o tema. Por meio de grupos focais online conduzidos em abril de 2021 com 62 eleitores da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, o objetivo foi verificar quatro dimensões da legitimidade: apoio aos princípios fundamentais do regime; apoio às instituições do regime; avaliação do desempenho do regime; e apoio aos atores políticos. Os resultados revelam que, embora a maioria dos participantes valorize o voto, as eleições e a participação política, grande parte demonstra atitudes negativas em relação aos partidos políticos, instituições políticas e eleitorais, especialmente quanto ao processo eleitoral. A percepção de corrupção se destaca como um fator determinante para as opiniões negativas. Além disso, observou-se que partidários de Bolsonaro e Haddad apresentam diferentes níveis de avaliação do governo. De forma geral, os resultados corroboram a literatura que aponta para altos níveis de apoio difuso aos princípios do regime entre os eleitores, contrastando com baixos níveis de apoio específico às instituições e autoridades políticas.

Democratic Legal Principles in the Election of the Governor of NTB, Indonesia

This study critically examines the mechanism of appointing the Acting Governor of Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB), focusing on its alignment with the principles of a democratic legal state. Utilizing a normative legal research methodology, the study employs legislative and conceptual approaches, drawing from primary and secondary legal materials. The analysis incorporates descriptive analytical, prescriptive, and argumentative data analysis techniques. Findings reveal that the current mechanism, governed by the Ministry of Home Affairs Regulation No. 4 of 2023, mandates adherence to democratic legal state principles. However, it faces significant challenges in ensuring optimal public participation and safeguarding human rights (HAM). Although the process involves multiple stakeholders, including optional non-ministerial government agencies, the final decision remains centrally with the president. This centralistic tendency undermines direct public participation in political decision-making, a core tenet of democracy. Additionally, the mechanism lacks clear legal procedures for termination, posing a risk of violating HAM principles and affecting the legitimacy and continuity of the appointed official. The study recommends enhancing public and representative body involvement to better reflect democratic participation principles. It also suggests regulatory changes to mandate broader stakeholder involvement and establish clear termination mechanisms, thereby improving transparency, accountability, and legal certainty while upholding human rights protection. These improvements are crucial for bolstering the mechanism's democratic legitimacy and efficacy in NTB's governance.Highlights
 
 Centralized Authority: The president's ultimate decision-making power limits public involvement.
 Public Participation Gap: Insufficient societal engagement in the appointment process.
 Human Rights Risks: Unclear termination procedures pose legal and legitimacy concerns.
 
 Keywords: Democratic Legal Principles, Public Participation, Human Rights, NTB Governor Appointment, Legal Transparency

Polarização e ideologia: explorando a natureza contextual do compromisso democrático

ABSTRACT Introduction: Political polarization stands as a pivotal topic in contemporary Political Science. Existing literature indicates that ideological extremism, prevalent in polarized environments, fosters the erosion of democratic norms by political elites. This phenomenon has primarily been explored through the examination of isolated cases or limited comparisons among a handful of highly polarized countries. This article investigates the role of “guardians of democracy”, questioning whether specific ideological groups maintain their commitment to democratic principles even amidst profound polarization. Materials and methods: Our analysis draws on public opinion data from 57 countries, encompassing over 77,000 respondents, sourced from the most recent wave of the World Values Survey (2017-2020). We explore the interaction between contextual and individual factors, investigating the impact of national-level polarization on individuals with varying ideological orientations and how the government's dominant ideology shapes individual responses to political polarization. Results: There is a negative relationship between polarization and democratic legitimacy. However, the impact varies depending on the ideology of the voters and their alignment with the ideology of the ruling party. Discussion: Our analysis suggests that the interaction between contextual factors (polarization and government ideology) and individual factors (voter ideology) creates scenarios that foster different profiles of guardians of democracy. However, none of these scenarios involved right-wing individuals presenting themselves as such.

대통령 거부권의 헌법적 한계

The presidential veto power to demand reconsideration of a law passed by the National Assembly may be subject to constitutional limits. If such limits exist, debates may arise over their existence, the grounds on which they are based, and the specific nature of these limits. Considering the constitutional position of the president and the form of government, the presidential veto power is constrained by constitutional limits.
 Under the current constitution, the president is a part of the executive branch domestically, adopting a mixed form of government that is primarily presidential but incorporates elements of a parliamentary system. The democratic legitimacy granted to the president as an executive is theoretically equivalent to the democratic legitimacy granted to the legislature, which holds the fundamental legislative power. Even if the president is recognized to have the veto power as a participatory right in the legislative process, such authority cannot infringe upon or exclude the National Assembly’s legislative decision-making power.
 From the perspective of the principle of separation of powers, if the president were granted an unlimited veto power, it could potentially infringe on the judicial power of the Constitutional Court by conferring an abstract normative control authority. The exercise of the president’s veto power should be limited to bills that are clearly unconstitutional, incur substantial costs endangering the soundness of national finances, or are related to the president or his/her family. Beyond constitutional limits, if the presidential veto power is exercised, constitutional sanctions may be necessary through adjudication of power dispute or impeachment trials.

방송·통신 영역에서 자율규제와 법제도 구성에 관한 고찰

Self-regulation can be defined as “an organized business group self-regulating the actions of its members to protect users.” If there is a need to respect the autonomous discipline of the business organization itself in a specific field, it would be good to introduce a self-regulation system. In newly emerging areas, areas that are rapidly changing or areas that require specialized or policy considerations, would be appropriate for business organizations in those areas to self-regulate because existing legal regulations do not reflect reality or cannot properly reflect reality. Even if a self-regulation system is introduced, the degree of legal intervention in the self-regulation system of business organizations may vary depending on the characteristics of the industry. If the scope of the area is diverse or subject to frequent change, the scope of self-regulation may be narrowed due to strong legal intervention, and in areas dealing with detailed, technical, and specialized matters, the private sector should be able to demonstrate efficiency and expertise. It is desirable to reduce the degree of legal intervention through self-regulation. In relation to freedom of speech, due to the constitutional order to guarantee the public’s freedom of expression as much as possible, state regulation should be minimized, and self-regulation by business organizations to replace it is judged to be effective. In addition, due to the emergence of new technologies and technological advancement in the field of broadcasting and communications, regulation by the existing positive system for industries in this field makes efficient industrial development difficult. However, as the provision of information through social media, Internet news, OTT services etc., the side effects caused by digital media exceeded a certain level and reached a level of social conflict and infringement of other people’s rights, countries around the world have started to regulate illegal information through national legal regulations. Self-regulation was judged to be insufficient to prevent the creation and distribution of false information, hate speech, etc. In order for a self-regulatory system to operate properly, it is important to secure the democratic legitimacy of self-regulatory organizations, operational transparency, independence, and enforcement of regulations. The German self-regulatory organization for multimedia service providers is the German Self-Regulation Organization for Multimedia Service Providers(FSM). The German Youth and Media Protection Committee approved FSM, a self-regulatory organizationy, to protect youth from media content. The United States is a country that operates a representative private self-regulation system. However, direct administrative regulations have recently become more prominent in the broadcasting and communications fields due to issues such as unfair trade or monopoly. The UK's self-regulatory organization is the Internet Watch Foundation(IWF). IWF carries out tasks such as deleting posts related to child sexual abuse, blocking access, and preventing search/access, and is operating a hotline as the most basic activity to make this possible. The Australian Communications and Media Authority(ACMA) is the broadcasting and communications regulator. ACMA is a government-affiliated organization and is a co-regulation model between the government and the private sector that supports and cooperates in the establishment of industry codes. The self-regulation system stipulated in Korea’s Information and Communications Network Act is actually close to administrative regulation. It is appropriate for information and communication service provider organizations to determine and implement a code of conduct for information and communication service providers, rather than a matter to be stipulated in the Information and Communications Network Act,

헌법상 가족 개념의 변화와 동성혼에 관한 논의

When societal conflicts rage over an important issue, such as those surrounding same-sex marriage, it is not easy to find a way to resolve them. In terms of democratic legitimacy, it is preferable for parliament to resolve the issue, but if that process does not work and human rights violations continue, the judicial process could resolve complex political issues rather than leaving them unresolved. Court judgments have emerged as a form of civil discourse linking judicial activism, social movements, and human rights movements. Additionally, civil discourse on law, rights, and justice is no longer the exclusive domain of experts because judicial decisions have become a catalyst of democratic communication between people and the state. Moreover, judicial dialogues play a positive role in overcoming the limitations of democratic institutions. For this reason, the active role of the courts is not incompatible with democratic principles but also enforces the active obligation of the state to address issues such as grave human rights violations caused by delayed political decision-making. The Same-Sex Marriage Act was passed by the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) on July 7, 2017, and was passed by both houses of parliament without constitutional amendments. This would not have been possible without the role of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. It has made a significant contribution by ensuring that the constitutional concept of family is interpreted more dynamically to reflect changing realities and by removing a number of discrimination surrounding marriage. A complete ban on same-sex marriage is hardly a necessary restriction. It is also contrary to the Law of Balancing as it is difficult for a state restricting individual freedoms and rights to justify the serious harm that same-sex couples would suffer as a result of a complete ban.

Brand Activism and Democratic Legitimacy: Exploring Pitfalls through a Habermasian Analysis

Brand activism has emerged as a prominent practice among corporations, as they publicly take a stand on contentious socio-political issues such as gender inequality, climate change, or discrimination, often through advertising. While extensive research has been conducted on the impact of brand activism as a marketing tool, examining its effects on sales, brand image, consumer attitudes, and authenticity, only a limited number of studies have studied its influence on public debate and processes of democratic legitimation. The latter have portrayed brand activism as an empowering force for the supported social movements, the public sphere, and democratic legitimacy, largely ignoring the consideration of potential negative effects. To address this gap, Habermas's political theory and Nancy Fraser's ideas on the resignification of feminist discourse are applied to 'femvertising' (feminist advertising). Fraser's ideas show how feminist values within femvertsing and the cultural progress they spurred, have paradoxically come to legitimate an institutional order that runs counter to feminist visions of a just society. Since this institutional order is based on power structures in which corporations flourish, brand activism should be understood as a form of 'opinion management' in the Habermasian sense of the word. Applying Fraser's ideas moreover shows how brand activism complicates the problems associated with 'regular' public relations. By claiming to be activist, yet legitimating existing power structures, brand activism is not merely depoliticizing but also incapacitating resistance from within. These findings demonstrate how brand activism might be detrimental to public opinion formation and the democratic legitimacy of our institutional order, but also that Habermas might be overly optimistic in his confidence in civil society.

The European Parliament Against the Background of the Rule of Law and the Standards of a Parliamentary System: Selected Issues

The aim of this study is to show the legal status and mechanism of action of the European Parliament against the background of classical standards of the rule of law in a democratic system. This study shows the extent of the deviation of the European Parliament from these standards and highlights its special features by using historical-, theoretical-, and dogmatic-legal methods. This helps to understand what parliamentarism is built into the present concept of the rule of law, and what distinguishes it from the classically understood assumptions of a parliamentary system. Specifically, this study comprises three key issues: the nature of the subject that equips the Parliament with democratic legitimacy, the way it is situated in the mechanism of power or, finally, the extent to which it is bound by existing legal norms. This research perspective is, of course, limited in nature and deals with selected issues. The crux of the study makes the reader aware that at the level of the European Union a new type of parliament and, consequently, a new type of parliamentarism has developed, and the rule of law applicable here is clearly different from the analogous principle found in traditional states.

SUPERAÇÃO ANTECIPATÓRIA: DECISÕES JUDICIAIS COMO INSTRUMENTO DE REVISÃO DE PROVIMENTOS VINCULANTES

Based on the exposition of the current appeal procedure of exceptional appeals (introduced by Law n. 13.256 of 2016), the study intends to analyze the current methods and demands of the Brazilian binding precedents reviewing and overruling process, pointing out the problems the current system implicates, such as the difficulty for complainants to access Superior Courts and resultant obstacles to the litigants’ participation in precedents’ permanence discussions and its democratic legitimacy. Comparisons between the Brazilian system and that of common law countries are pondered in order to recognize a possible solution, which is to employ anticipatory overruling, by making use of specific revision interpretative techniques of the rule contained in the precedent.