This chapter describes various definitions of risk, including financial and operational, both from a regulatory and a non-regulatory standpoint.

International organizations (IOs) are instances of international governance, i.e., places where international (normative) power is exercised. As such, they are subject to requirements for democratization, among which is the need for democratic representation. The meaning of democratic representation varies. When applied to IOs in the context of globalization, democratic representation is understood as the set of mechanisms and techniques that make individuals present in their functioning, particularly in the making of international norms, including soft norms. Among these mechanisms and techniques, parliamentarization is supposed to involve national parliaments to a greater extent, either as such, through their members, or through the institutions that brings them together: the international parliamentary institutions. Notwithstanding their diversity, these institutions appear to be the preferred vehicle for the parliamentarization of IOs because they institutionalize international parliamentary representation. Yet, the extent to which this parliamentarization effectively serves democratic representation in IOs is open to discussion. First, representation within international parliamentary institutions reveals that the parliamentary representative can be a false friend of IOs as democratic representatives. Moreover, representation by international parliamentary institutions or their members is often a false pretence of democratic representation within IOs, despite clear democratic virtues for their functioning.

This chapter describes the ways in which institutions can respond to each of the various risks they face.

I present a case study in this chapter to illustrate the importance of moral psychology, fairness, and relative deprivation. There was little civic discontent in Ireland when the economy collapsed but, when Ireland had the fastest-growing economy in Europe, people took to the streets and ultimately voted the sitting government out of power. I detail a series of studies, mostly using ethnographic and qualitative methods, that revealed some of the historically ingrained cultural and moral reasons why Irish people passively accepted economic hardship and austerity during the downturn, only to protest en masse when the government introduced a bill charging citizens directly for the water they consumed. The water charge served as a symbol of injustice, and people took to the streets because they felt unfairly treated and deprived relative to others who were seen as benefitting during the economic upturn. It is not objective economic indicators, but rather people’s subjective understandings of these systems, that determine whether they are seen as fair.

This chapter describes how the various risks can be quantified, exploring the range of models that can be used.

What might entitle agents or agencies that are not sponsored by the state, only by some other social group or organization, to represent their people in an international forum. A state-centred approach would deny that they ever have a title to such a role, while an individual-centred approach would hold that they have as good a title as the state. Both approaches have problems and the paper presents a third, more satisfying alternative. On this approach, such bodies may claim to represent their people insofar as the state enjoys standby control over their proposals, being able to oppose them, should it wish to do so, with a radical veto or a moderate refusal to be bound. Ideally, however, the state with such standby control will be required to allow the proposals to be publicized domestically and to provide reasons for opposing them, if that is what it chooses to do. Under the arrangement proposed, state-independent representatives will be able to explore innovative ideas collaboratively with their counterparts from elsewhere, to identify imaginative solutions to common problems, and to have the opportunity to persuade their own states, under domestic pressure, to fall in line.

This chapter describes a number of case studies relating to both financial and non-financial institutions.

This chapter is couched in my family narrative of economic development and personal travel during a global economic recession. I use this backdrop to frame – and make accessible – theoretical discussions of cultural psychology (the idea that individuals and cultures make each other up) and value pluralism (the idea that there can be different but equal sets of co-existing values, beliefs, and ways of life). I apply the idea of pluralism to diverse economic systems, tracing foundational orientations and debates around capitalism and socialism, animated by observations of the lived realities in the global economic systems I have travelled to.

This chapter describes the internal environment of a financial institution.

This contribution questions the reality and possibility of the claim that the European Union (EU) is founded on “representative democracy”. In the absence of a European demos, three consecutive difficulties are analyzed: the question of the unity of the represented, the representation of citizens as EU citizens, and, finally, the quest for representativeness of the European society. The reflection’s conclusion points towards the complementarity and inseparability of the representative and participatory forms of democracy in a transnational context, with the participatory forms adding a transnational dimension to the European representative democracy.

This chapter describes a number of important univariate and multivariate statistical distributions and their uses, as well as discussing various copulas.

This chapter describes the main approaches to identifying risk, in terms of tools and techniques.