Tools

How are key officials appointed or elected, and what is the agency's governance structure (single-headed agency, multi-headed commission, self-regulatory organization, etc.)? Who can belong to the institution - only states or also nongovernmental actors? Does a parliamentary body exist? Are its members directly elected by people or are they representatives of national parliaments? In the former case, are the election free? Do free (private and/or public) mass media exist making citizens aware of government alternatives?

Democracy in the context of the nation-state represents a necessary condition for international democracy; this indicator reflects therefore to what extent the member states of an international organization are democratic.

Does a civil society exist, organized at the institution's level and articulating the polical demand? How developed is it? Is it autonomos from public powers and from market forces? How is it funded? How is it organized? Do political parties exist, organized at the institution's level and aggregating the political demand? To what extent are they autonomous from national parties? Is decision-making process managed according with formalized and observed rules?

This indicator describes citizens' ability to influence and participate in decision-making. Are citizens entitled with the right to address petitions and with the right of legislative initiative? Are they consulted through referenda or through public hearings conceived to amplify their voice? If a civil society and political parties organized at the institution's level exist, what is their role in decision-making? Is a consultative status for NGOs, associations, trade unions provided? Tho what extent can citizens participate in the life of political parties and influence their positions? To what extent are women involved in political elections and in organization's institutions and bodies?

This indicator reflects whether citizens and civil society are able to control the political authority of the monitored organization. Can citizens appraise whether their representatives implement the mandate according to which they are elected? The answer implies the evaluation of transparency in decision-making process: are documents and acts produced by the political authority freely available to the public opinion? Are bodies required to publish reasons for their decisions and are these reasons widely accessible? Are involved interests granted in their possibility to access to information? Do independent mass media exist? If a parliamentary body exists, can it exercise effective control powers on organization's bodies, e.g. through questions and parliamentary enquiries? Is parliament competent on all issues managed by the executive power? Can it apply to a court when it finds that a decision produced by governing bodies is against law?

This indicator reflects the quality of member states' participation in the decision-making of the monitored organization. Does a body representing states exist? What is its relationship with an eventual legislative body? Are states represented according to the sovereign equality principle, with the same powers in decision-making process (one country-one vote), or decision-making is based on weighted-voting? What are the rilevant principles for the weighted-voting? Does a corrispondence exist between states representation and power relationships, and to what extent the two elements are at variance? Power relations give birth to a balance of power or to a unipolarism involving one or more countries?

Supranationalism means that citizens' general interests, rather than states' interest, are the point of reference for the political authority. If a legislative body exists, does it have legislative powers? Are rules approved by the organization directly applyable and enforceable in the member states' legal order? Does a supranational executive power exist and what are its powers and competences? How is it composed and which principles regulate the composition-process? What is its relationship with the legislative body? If the organization has a secretariat, to what extent is it independent from member states and what are its powers and competences? Does a jurisdictional body exist and how is it composed? What are its competences? Are its decisions binding and how are they implemented? Does a central bank exist, independent from member states? What are its competences? Does a common currency exist and how is it managed? Are norms and decisions enforced through supranational police forces or through member states' executive powers? Does the organization have a legal status? Does it have the power to interfere within the domestic jurisdiction of member states, e.g. when gross violations of human rights occur? Is this power concretely exercised?

This indicator reflects the availability of checks and balances between the organization's powers. Does a separation between executive, legislative and jurisdictional powers exist? Are executive power's acts submitted to the control of a court, and what is the power of the latter in this context? E.g., can it block an act or does it only produce advisory opinions? Does a clear division between the powers of states on the one hand, and the organizations' ones on the other exist?

An everlasting relation links directly and indirectly democracy and human rights: indeed, civil and political rights are constitutive elements of democracy, while there is a biunivocal relation between the latter and economic, social and cultural rights. Therefore, this indicator reflects the extent to which human rights are recognized and enforced at the supranational level. Do human rights documents exist, produced by or in force at the level of the monitored organization? Are they binding or political documents? To what extent are they obeyed and perceived as binding by member states? Are these documents directed only to states or to their citizens and non-governmental actors (NGOs, corporations...) too? How many countries have ratified these documents? How can be judged the reservations put by states in signing the documents? How can be evaluated the range of protected rights, e.g. in comparison with the UN Treaty on Civil and Political Rights, or the UN Treaty on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights? In particular, the documents provide only civil and political rights, or economic, social and cultural rights as well, or even third generation rights? How developed is the machinery for protecting rights? Is its nature only political, or quasi-jurisdictional or jurisdictional? Are human rights executed? Is the organization equipped with an executive mechanism with reference to human rights? Are these machineries effectively used and considered as effective protection instruments? Are extra-jurisdictional mechanisms for human rights protection provided (e.g. an ombudsman) and what are their power and competences? Are their decisions efficacious and do their observations get results by organization's authorities? Do they find an answer by authorities and are they applied by them? Do a common passport and a common citizenship (which can be complementary to the national ones) exist? Are a criminal law and a criminal jurisdiction provided in the framework of the monitored organization?

This indicator reflects the quality of organization's output, describing to what extent it corresponds to the competences and the objectives accorded to it by member states and citizens. In other words, it is about the organization's capability to provide effective solutions in order to gain the legitimacy by its member states and citizens. Does the organization concretely perform its constitutional functions? With what degree of success? In particular, what is the role played by the organization in promoting democracy inside its member states?

Table of Contents 

Foreword by Robert Palea

 

PART I

1. Preface  - Giovanni Finizio, Lucio Levi and Nicola Vallinoto 

2. Introduction - Lucio Levi

3. The Legal and Political Status of International Parliamentary Institutions - Claudia Kissling

PART II - Universal Organisations

4. United Nations - Giovanni Finizio

5. World Bank - Tina M. Zappile

6. International Monetary Fund - Jonathan R. Strand

7. World Trade Organization - Alexia Herwig  

8. International Labour Organization - Jill Jensen

9. Inter-Parliamentary Union - Claudia Kissling

PART III - Regional Organisations 

Europe

10. The Democratisation of the European Union: Historical and Theoretical Aspects - Mario Telò

Box 1. Benelux

11. European Union: the Process Towards Supranationality - Lucia Serena Rossi

Box 2.  Central European Iniziative

12. The Democratisation of the European Union - Dawid Friedrich

Box 3. Nordic Council

Africa

13. African Union (AU) - Stephen S. Kingah

14. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - Hélene Gandois

15. West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) - Kama Tapè Berengér

16. Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) - Angela Meyer

17. Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CAEMC) - Angela Meyer

18. East African Community (EAC) - Korwa G. Adar

19. Southern African Development Community (SADC) - Andreas Godsäter

Box 4. Arab Maghreb Union

America

20. South American Common Market (MERCOSUR) - Mariana Luna Pont

21. Andean Community (CAN) - Dayanna Sanchez Rodriguez

22. Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) - Nicolas Comini

23. Central American Integration System (SICA) - Giannis Papageorgiou

24. Caribbean Community (CARICOM) - Tamara Brown-Onnis

25. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - Jordan Bankhead

Asia and Oceania

26. Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Herman Joseph S. Kraft

27. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) - Deepshikha Shahi

28. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Jordan Bankhead

29. Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) - Chris Hamer

 

PART IV - Interregional Organisations

30. Council of Europe (CoE) - Kundai M. Sithole

Box 5. Arctic Council

31. EU/ACP Partnership - Andrea Cofelice

Box 6. International Organization of La Francophonie

32. League of Arab States (LAS) - Nadine Mourad Sika

Box 7. Council of Baltic Sea States

33. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - Marek Madej

Box 8. Organisation of Black Sea Economic Co-operation

34. Organization of American States (OAS) - Marcos Aurélio Guedes de Oliveira

Box 9. Organization of Islamic Cooperation

35. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - Julinda Beqiraj

36. Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) - Alexander Libman

PART V

37. Autonomous Interparliamentary Assemblies Edited by Laura Roscio

Amazonian Parliament

Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum

Association of Senates, Shoora and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World

Baltic Assembly

Central European Initiative

Indigenous Parliament of America

Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy

Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas

Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean

Parliamentary Confederation of the Americas

 

PART VI

38. Civil Society Movements and Campaigns for International Democracy - Nicola Vallinoto