Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance

Front Cover
Stanford University Press, 1995 - 324 pages
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.

 

Contents

Old and New 35
3
The Interstate System 73 1 880
27
THE FORMATION
29
The Development of the Nationstate and
48
Democracy the Nationstate and the Global
99
Democracy the Nationstate and the Global
121
Rethinking Democracy
143
Sites of Power Problems of Democracy
159
Democracy and the Democratic Good
189
Political Community and the Cosmopolitan Order
221
Markets Private Property and Cosmopolitan
239
Cosmopolitan Democracy and the
267
Acknowledgements
287
Index
314
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About the author (1995)

David Held is Professor of Politics and Sociology at Open University. Among his recent publications are "Models of Democracy," "Political Theory and the Modern State," and (as editor) "Political Theory Today" and "Prospects for Democracy: North, South, East, West."

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