If the idea of the final authority of a given geographical area is no longer the nation state, at what level are decisions to be made?

With super-state organisations such as the IMF and ECB, and global trade deals such as the TTP having matters settled in courts meeting in secret; what is the role of the democratic state?

It is surely the only vehicle left to defend against the ravages of an economic system. The current ‘democratic’ struggles over control are really just a veiled form of deciding the rate at which common goods can be stripped. However, it will become vital to command the state to defend the last vestiges of those goods.

Does the answer lie in ‘Arab Spring’ domino events  which beat the attempts of finance to stop it? Or are we doomed to spiral ever downwards?