Over the past two decades the traditions of governing in nation-states have been under great pressure as conventional state-centric practices have been challenged or replaced by new ideas of governance. These new ideas and norms and models generally originate from what could be seen as an international discursive structure of transnational governance. It is composed of a number of different institutions and actors, including established organizations such as the European Union, OECD and World Bank as well as newer or more loosely defined actors such as the World Economic Forum and Transparency International. The section explores the new rationales and mechanisms of transnational ideational diffusion and exchange, and their impacts on (national) politics, governance and democracy. While the section primarily assesses the vertical diffusion of ideas (top-down, bottom-up), it also invites papers that deal with horizontal linkages between different actors, i.e. the ideational relations between states and, perhaps more importantly, within international actor networks. In particular, the section assesses the outcomes of ideational changes from the perspectives of politics, democracy, equality and institutional transformations. For example, if politics is defined through conflict and the possibility of disagreement, then in what ways do the transnational governance structures and discourses close, constrain or open this possibility and thereby the realm of politics? In this context, what are the consequences of ideational transfer to democracy on the national level, and what can be said about the democratic accountability of transnational actors? Finally, what institutional transformations can we observe in conjunction with the internationally induced changes of power, politics and democracy?
