Can sovereignty or democratic self-government be “shared” or “pooled” in a transnational authority?
Sovereignty essentially means self-government, a particular people makes its own political decisions. Logically, it is not possible to “share” self-government – that is the ability to rule yourselves – if you cede democratic authority to a political or judicial body that is not responsible or accountable to your own citizens. For example, if ten countries are “pooling sovereignty,” what happens when some nations disagree with the joint decision of the others? If these nations go along with the joint decision against the wishes of their own people, they are no longer sovereign because they no longer rule themselves, but are, in effect, ruled by those outside of their democratic system. Global governance/transnationalism will not be more effective at addressing global problems than liberal democratic nation-states led by the United States When human rights were threatened in the Balkans it was democratic nation-states led by the United States under the auspices of NATO, not the UN or any
