This book provides a highly original account of the changing meaning of democracy in the contemporary world, offering both an historical and philosophical analysis of the nature and prospects of democracy today.

Democracy is the most potent political idea in the world today, yet the future of democracy is increasingly uncertain. Key assumptions of democratic thinking and practice are being undermined by diverse sites of social economic power on the one hand, and by dense networks of regional and global interconnectedness on the other. States and societies are enmeshed in webs of international conditions and processes as never before. Democracy and the Global Order offers a highly original and systematic account of these issues. Part I assesses the traditional conceptions of democracy. Part II traces the rise and displacement of the modern nation-state in the context of the interstate system and the world economy. Part III explores the theoretical bases of democracy and of the democratic state, and the profound changes these concepts must undergo if they are to retain their relevance in the century ahead. Finally. Part IV champions a "cosmopolitan" model of democracy--a new conception of democracy for a new world order.

How is the world organized politically? How should it be organized? What forms of political organization are required to deal with such global challenges as climate change, terrorism, or nuclear proliferation? Drawing on work in international law, international relations, and global governance, this book provides a clear and wide-ranging introduction to the analysis of global political order — how patterns of governance and institutionalization in world politics have already changed; what the most important challenges are; and what the way forward might look like. The first section develops three analytical frameworks: a world of sovereign states capable of only limited cooperation; a world of ever-denser international institutions embodying the idea of an international community; and a world in which global governance moves beyond the state and into the realms of markets, civil society and networks. Part II examines five of the most important issues facing contemporary international society: nationalism and the politics of identity; human rights and democracy; war, violence and collective security; the ecological challenge; and the management of economic globalization in a highly unequal world. Part III considers the idea of an emerging multi-regional system; and the picture of global order built around US empire. The conclusion looks at the normative implications. If international society has indeed been changing in the ways discussed in this book, what ought we to do? And, still more crucially, who is the 'we' that is to be at the centre of this drive to create a morally better world? This book is concerned with the fate of international society in an era of globalization and the ability of the inherited society of sovereign states to provide a practically viable and normatively acceptable framework for global political order. It lays particular emphasis on the different forms of global inequality and the problems of legitimacy that these create and on the challenges posed by cultural diversity and value conflict.

The chapters in this volume deal with timely issues regarding democracy in theory and in practice in today's globalized world. Authored by leading political philosophers of our time, they appear here for the first time. The essays challenge and defend assumptions about the role of democracy as a viable political and legal institution in response to globalization, keeping in focus the role of rights at the normative foundations of democracy in a pluralistic world. Through an examination of key topics of current relevance, with contrasting views of the leading theorists, the chapters address the most relevant theories and forms of globalization, traditional democratic paradigms and their limits, public deliberation and democratic participation, the moral hazards of imperial democracy, and the future of liberal democracy. In addition to suggesting new perspectives on democracy, they use the current debate on justice, human rights, sovereignty, and cultural relativism to shed light on enduring questions about politics, culture, and global development. This timely and provocative collection will be of interest to anyone concerned with democracy, human rights, global justice, economic development, poverty, international law, peace, and various aspects of globalization.

"Legitimation by Constitution" is the phrase, coined by distinguished authors Frank Michelman and Alessandro Ferrara, for a key idea in Rawlsian political liberalism of a reliance on a dualist form of democracy-a subjection of ground-level lawmaking to the constraints of a higher-law constitution that most citizens could find acceptable as a framework for their politics-as a response to the problem of maintaining a liberally just, stable, and oppression-free democratic government in conditions of pluralist visionary conflict. Legitimation by Constitution recalls, collects, and combines a series of exchanges over the years between Michelman and Ferrara, inspired by Rawls' encapsulation of this conception in his proposed liberal principle of legitimacy. From a shared standpoint of sympathetic identification with the political-liberal statement of the problem, for which legitimation by constitution is proposed as a solution, these exchanges consider the perceived difficulties arguably standing in the way of this proposal's fulfillment on terms consistent with political liberalism's defining ideas about political justification. The authors discuss the mysteries of a democratic constituent power; the tensions between government-by-the-people and government-by-consent; the challenges posed to concretization by judicial authorities of national constitutional law; and the magnification of these tensions and challenges under the lenses of ambition towards transnational legal ordering. These discussions engage with other leading contemporary theorists of liberal-democratic constitutionalism including Bruce Ackerman, Ronald Dworkin, and Jürgen Habermas.

This volume reinterprets the peace settlements after 1918 as a site of remarkable innovations in the making of international order.

The essays in this volume explore several key issues facing democracies today. They discuss the dilemma of how to protect civil liberties and individual freedoms in the light of external threats and assess the policies adopted by governments in this area. The book also addresses the question of how free, exactly, free markets should be in an economy in order to secure social peace, before going on to highlight the rudiments of the model of social market economy, as applied in Germany. It examines the problem of the democratic and legitimacy deficits that beset European integration and suggests reforms for a more democratic European Union. Last but not least, by looking back in history, they provide evidence and propose policies for the revitalization of institutions in present-day democracies. The book is of considerable interest to researchers and students in economics and political science, as well as to readers who wish to gain insights into the thorny social issues involved.

Contested globalizations -- Rival transnational networks -- Politics in a global system -- Globalizing capitalism : the transnational neoliberal network in action -- Promoting multilateralism : social movements and the UN system -- Mobilizing a transnational network for democratic globalization -- Agenda-setting in a global polity -- Domesticating international human rights norms -- Confronting contradictions between multilateral economic institutions and the UN system -- Alternative political spaces : the world social forum process and "globalization from below"--Conclusions: Network politics and global democracy.

Papers presented at the Seminar: Alternative Global Futures, held at Kolkata during 5-6 March 2003 and the Seminar: State, Nation and Democracy : Global Politics in the 21st Century, held at Kolkata during 9-10 March 2004