Global Democracy: For and Against

"Either democracy is global or it is not democracy" asserts Raffaele Marchetti in opening his book. It is indeed about time that contemporary democratic theory and practice caught up with this idea. Marchetti is an ultracosmopolitan. He believes that existing cosmopolitans have made too many concessions to the way the world currently works, seeking to involve stakeholders rather than ordinary citizens, happy to build upon existing intergovernmental arrangements, and tolerating too many exclusions. The virtue of Marchetti’s book lies in its having staked out an extreme position that should become a point of reference in future debates." John Dryzek, Professor of Social and Political Theory in the Political Science Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

"That globalization challenges democracy is a truism of our time. The identification of the specific challenges (and ways to address them) depend however on the contested definitions of both terms. In this precious volume, Raffaele Marchetti combines political theory with empirical materials in order to map problems and suggest solutions for a global democracy that is difficult, yet urgent to achieve." Donatella della Porta, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute-EUI

"An elegant and sophisticated contribution to thinking about the changing boundaries of political theory and, in particular, how democracy, social justice and governance need to be reinterpreted in a global age. This is a challenging book that stakes out new ground in the debate." David Held, Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics