Reply #45: That's a really good point about democratic accountability.

[pampango]

International organizations like the WTO, the UN, NATO, ASEAN, and many others are only accountable, if they are at all, to their member governments not to the people that live in those countries.

It would seem like an extremely tall order to achieve this kind of democratic accountability in such places, since most of the world has trouble achieving any such accountability on a domestic level. I understand the useful role of a voluntary international organization that provides a framework of agreed upon rules and a dispute resolution mechanism in facilitating trade between countries. The problem is that, when it becomes as powerful as the WTO is and has such an impact on the lives of real people, there needs to be some method for democratic accountability.