Liberal Democracy into the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Integration and the Nation-State

This book offers a contemporary critique of liberal democracy, understood as a set of institutions and as a set of ideas. Roland Axtmann asks what democracy means today, as it faces the challenges of feminism, multiculturalism, globalization and European integration. Axtmann analyses in turn each of liberal democracy's component parts. Firstly he discusses the notions of sovereignty, constitutionalism and representation and analyses the liberal concept of citizenship. Secondly he surveys the conceptual history of civil society and presents republicanism and deliberative politics (after Habermas) as alternative conceptualizations of democracy. Thirdly he shows how feminism and multi-culturalism challenge liberal democracy with their demands for the granting of group rights. Finally he shows how global interdependence and supranational integration demand a reconsideration of democratic sovereignty. The idea of democratic rule by the sovereign people in the sovereign nation-state is being transformed to reflect new connections between citizens, governments, and supranational institutions.

ISBN: 9780719043055

Edition: 1. edition