Globalization and Democracy

Stephen J. Rosow is professor of political science at the State University of New York at Oswego. Jim George was senior lecturer at the Australian National University until his retirement in 2012.

Combining theory with compelling case studies, this book examines the globalizing world of democracy. Noted critical scholars Stephen J. Rosow and Jim George argue that democracy must be understood not as a unified concept but as a diversity of political responses to specific conditions and political struggles. Doing so reveals how democracy is taking multiple forms around the world in response to neoliberal globalism and the increasing pace and complexity of everyday life. The authors show how the current phase of globalization is destabilizing the dominance of Western democracy promotion as resisters challenge common understandings and forms of democracy. Explaining the theory behind neoliberal globalization and democracy promotion, they consider its impact and struggles against it in South Africa, post-Soviet Russia, India, and Venezuela and other "pink tide" states in Latin America. Rosow and George also examine how digital communications networks, the centralization of security, and the fluid movements of people and ideas are destabilizing traditional democratic theories. At the same time, they give rise to concepts of democracy that focus on new forms of citizenship and democratic participation, a cosmopolitan democratic constitutionalism, cross-boundary political activism, and local and community-based economic and democratic practices.

Introduction: One or Many Forms of Democracy?Chapter 1: Democracy in Historical Context: Toward HeterodoxyChapter 2: Neoliberalism and Democracy: Debate, Conflict, and Contestation in the Current EraChapter 3: What Does Democracy Mean in the Neoliberal Era? The Case of Venezuela and "Bolivarian Democracy"Chapter 4: Democracy as a Challenge to Neoliberalism: Heterodoxy in South Africa, India, and RussiaChapter 5: Globalization and the Destabilization of DemocracyChapter 6: New Democratic Subjects in Neoliberal GlobalizationSelected Bibliography