International parliamentarism: An introduction to its history

Abstract

Since World War II a plethora of international parliaments has been established. Distinguishable both from the many non-parliamentary international bodies and from numerous inter-parliamentary meetings and delegations, international parliaments consist of direct parliamentary representatives from more than one state in regional or supra-regional groupings. After initial precursors since the late nineteenth century, their establishment was greatly furthered by successive stages of historical development after 1945: the immediate post-war aftermath, the Cold War period, after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, and the current period of advancing globalization. Lluis Maria de Puig traces the emergence of some 30 of these representative bodies, examining their origins, purposes, institutions, and effectiveness. While criticizing the ‘democratic deficit’ of several of them, he views positively in most cases their previous achievements in, and future potential for, advancing the causes of human and civil rights, freedom from prejudice, the self-determination of peoples, the fostering of democracy, economic co-operation, sustainable development, conservation of the environment, the problems of labour and migration, cultural advance and exchange, improved relations between governments and peoples, security and peace, all in an age when national states and their parliaments find it increasingly difficult to resolve their problems in isolation. International parliaments have to be responsive to the needs of society, and may well prove an acceptable alternative forum to national parliaments for the expression of dissatisfactions currently manifest in extra-parliamentary popular agitation. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.