Democracy and Globalization

Abstract

There is a striking paradox to note regarding the contemporary era: from Africa to Eastern Europe, Asia to Latin America, more and more nations and groups are championing the idea of democracy; but they are doing so at just that moment when the very efficacy of democ racy as a national form of political organization appears open to question. As substantial areas of human activity are progressively organized on a re gional or global level, the fate of democracy, and of the independent democratic nation-state in particular, is fraught with difficulty. Throughout the world's major regions, there has been a consolidation of democratic processes and procedures. In the mid-1970s, more than two thirds of all states could reasonably be called authoritarian. This percent age has fallen dramatically; less than a third of all states are now authori tarian, and the number of democracies is growing rapidly.1 Democracy has become the fundamental standard of political legitimacy in the current era. Events such as the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall are symbolic of changes indicating that, in more and more countries, citizen voters are, in principle, able to hold public de cisionmakers to account. Yet, at the same time, the democratic political community is increasingly challenged by regional and global pressures and problems. How can problems such as the spread of aids, the debt burden of many countries in the developing world, the flow of financial re sources that escape national jurisdiction, the drugs trade, and international crime be satisfactorily brought within the sphere of democracy? What kind of accountability and control can citizens of a single nation-state have over international actors, e.g., multinational corporations (MNCs), and over in ternational organizations, e.g., the World Bank? In the context of trends toward regionalization, European integration, fundamental transformations in the global economy, mass communications and information technology, how can democracy be sustained? Are new democratic institutions neces sary to regulate and control the new international forces and processes? How can citizens participate as citizens in a new, more complex, interna tionally organized world? In a world organized increasingly on regional and global lines, can democracy as we know it survive?