There has been some discussion among scholars and public intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic about whether there can be a global democracy and whether or not sovereignty can be shared. Richard Bellamy, Sir Robert Cooper, John Fonte, David Held and Jeremy Rabkin have all published work on the subject. Yet this crucial topic needs to be aired far more prominently. I remain sceptical about “shared sovereignty”. Treaties between sovereign states are one matter. Forms of partial political union are something else altogether and have normally proved to be unstable and temporary.

The final form of assault on democracy is less concrete and far less appreciated. Nevertheless, it is all the more significant for coming under the informed public’s radar. At least since the 1990s, there have been concerted efforts by international organisations such as the UN and by the NGOs and academic camp followers which feed off them to establish what have been variously designated as recommendations, guidelines, best practices, norms, rules, standards, codes and conventions. These documents are far more detailed than the highly general wording of Article 21(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, which merely set out that “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.” Such a formulation allowed the signatory governments to decide for themselves what constituted “genuine” and “free” voting procedures.

Matters have moved on. There is a race between different national and international organisations to establish ever more detailed formulations. Often, these bodies have themselves been colonised by pressure groups. Some of them are heavily funded by governments, others by billionaires.

At their best, bodies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the Council of Europe, and the Organisation of American States perform invaluable functions. They sometimes attract staff with exceptionally fine minds. They provide expert assistance when elections are held in the aftermath of civil war. They are able to identify controversial practices by means such as election observation missions, technical assistance to election management bodies and special investigations. These may be as valuable for countries with long-established systems of democratic elections as for emerging democracies. Nevertheless, the pitfalls of institutions of actual or would-be global governance cannot safely be ignored.

Alongside activities of international organisations, there has been a surge in academic attention to the topic of electoral malpractice and corruption. An extensive programme on the subject is currently in progress under the leadership of Pippa Norris of Harvard and Sydney University. The highly ambitious Electoral Integrity Project appears to engage in advocacy as well as research. In broad terms, it seems to favour the continental European critique of traditional Anglo-American models.