On 6th May, Jens Steffek will visit us to discuss ongoing publication projects with our research team. As a part of his visit, he will also deliver a talk about “The Democratic Output Legitimacy of International Organizations”. The talk engages with the notion that international organizations are often assessed either against input criteria associated with democratic process or against output criteria associated with effective and efficient problem-solving. While the two sets of criteria are thus often pitted against each other, Steffek argues for a notion of “democratic output criteria” that reconiles fundamental ideas that underlie the different assessments. Notably, this notion includes institutional mechanisms for keeping powerful actors in check and for enhancing the epistemic quality of decision-making, inter alia through systematic citizen input.
Jens Steffek is Professor of Transnational Governance at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. His publications include Evaluating Transnational NGOs – Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; co-edited with Kristina Hahn); Civil Society Participation in European and Global Governance: A Cure for the Democratic Deficit? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; co-edited with Claudia Kissling and Patrizia Nanz); Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007; co-edited with Achim Hurrelmann and Steffen Schneider) and Embedded Liberalism and Its Critics: Justifying Global Governance in the American Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
Steffek will be the fourth guest in our series of invited lectures, following earlier visits from Anna Holzscheiter (FU Berlin), Catia Gregoratti (Lund University) and Jan Aart Scholte (Warwick University). The talk takes place at InIIS, Seminar Room, at 4:00 p.m.; guests are welcome.
