Democrazia internazionale per la democrazia interna: fiaccola sopra il moggio, non bagliori di guerra

The author argues that international democracy is a fundamental requirement of global governance. The democratisation of international institutions, in particular of the United Nations system, is the independent variable of democratisation inside countries. International democracy does not coincide with the principle «one country, one vote» of the voting procedure: this is nothing but the translation of the principle of equal sovereignty into the decision-making processes of multilateral organisations. The concept of democracy is the same at both the internal and international level: free expression of the people will through the election of representative bodies, and popular participation in the decision-making processes. Since the international legal instruments of human rights assume explicitely that those rights are inherent to the human being (Universal Declaration, art. 1), then de iure human beings, not states, are the original depository of sovereignty also in the international system. De facto, there is enough empirical evidence that shows that democracy can actually be exercised on the international and regional plane. The NGOs consultative status is a good indicator of international participatory democracy in progress. The European Parliament and several «Parliamentary Assemblies» of regional organ-isations provide as well an indicator of the existence of the representative dimension of democracy at the very international level. Then, we have both law and historical circumstances that permit democracy to go beyond the traditional (national) borders and extend its practice in a larger political space. Democratisation inside states is a gradual process that can actually be enhanced, even speeded by trickle down dynamics from the top of international institutions. If countries with a long history of democratic practice want other countries share the same experience, they should enhance the democratisation process of the United Nations and of other international institutions: dissemination of democratic values needs co-operative behaviour and virtuous contamination in multilateral frameworks, not war, invasions, occupation, forced secularisation, homologation. The Interamerican Democratic Charter and the Sana’a develop the democracy discourse at the international level by linking it with the paradigm of human rights and the rule of law.