The Democratic Construction Of Inherently Sovereign Functions

In this essay, I approach the question of privatization from a normative political theory perspective. Following Megret's lead, I focus on the inter- or transnational domain, with the aim of making explicit the norms that undergird Megret's analysis despite the functional approach he apparently adopts. I argue that the normative basis of the ideas of sovereignty and publicness he relies on is parasitic on the principles of democratic legitimacy developed on the level of the constitutional democratic state. Put differently, my concern is less with the potential demise of public international law that privatization seems to portend, and more with privatization's threat to democratic self-government under both domestic and international public law.