Towards a worldwide (deliberative) democracy? Catholic social teaching and the idea of global governance

Catholic social teaching (CST) is viewed as one of the most eminent social concepts. A global governance as a more or less new idea of the CST seems to be appealing and provocative. In this paper, I aim to examine its plausibility in the light of the current debates on democratic innovations. It seems that the idea of global governance, as offered by the CST, is focussed mainly on pure institutional boosting and seeking the most appropriate 'global political authority', which observes 'consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity (and) seeks to establish the common good', as written by Benedict XVI. I suggest that a viable type of global democracy should make room for active peoples' engagement. Viewed from this perspective, I propose to introduce some elements of public deliberation into the global democratic network. Such an improvement could help to reach more credible global governance and achieve an expected level of its efficacy.