The Global Governance and Democratic Institutions cluster analyses contemporary governance institutions and processes of change from a variety of perspectives. Its members study political processes, both in consolidated democracies and in transition contexts. They focus on state institutions, as well as civil society; and they take into perspective classical electoral processes and challenges for democratic governance in the processes towards judicialisation and the regulatory state. One central focus of the research cluster is the analysis of the post-national constellation in its multiple dimensions. It studies the implications of the increasingly blurred boundaries of the political space for communities and forms of belonging, for the rise of global civil society, and especially for the structures of governance beyond the state. Research foci include the emergence of European and global administrative spaces, the turn towards post-national law, the participation of organised interests in multi-level decision-making, and the possibilities of ‘autonomy-protecting’ global governance.