Description:
As globalization proceeds apace international law, and the scope and powers of international institutions - the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization - continue to grow. If democratic values are still an aspiration of the 21st century, then their deficit at international level must be addressed. Patomaki and Teiveinen survey the range of proposals now on the table. Ruling nothing out, they emphasis feasibility. While democratic advances do not come without political mobilization, there is little point mobilizing people for the utopian and unrealizable.
This informative, thought-provoking book will be of use both to students of International Relations and Political Science, and also to campaigners concerned with the existing inequitable and unaccountable international arrangements.Brief description: Heikki Patomäki is Professor of World Politics at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Previously he has also worked as a Professor of World Politics and Economy at the Nottingham Trent University, UK, and RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. In 2012 he acted as a Visiting Professor at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. Patomäki's research interests include philosophy and methodology of social sciences, peace research, futures studies, economic theory, global political economy, and global political theory. His most recent book is The Political Economy of Global Security. War, Future Crises and Changes in Global Governance (Routledge, 2008). He is currently working on two new books, Unprincipled Economics (with Jamie Morgan) and Global Futures. Patomäki is a founding member of NIGD (Network Institute for Global Democratisation) and has also been an activist in the international ATTAC movement from its inception, currently chairing ATTAC Finland.
Review Quotes:
"Amid all the cant about democracy and globalization, it is refreshing to have a book that takes a democratization that is global seriously, as an objective and as a process. This book adds substance to the slogan that another world is possible." --Immanuel Wallerstein
"This stimulating exploration of global democracy offers clarity and hope concerning one of the most urgent challenges of contemporary politics." --Jan Aart Scholte, University of Warwick "This is a book for all of those who want to engage in practical projects of democratic change." --Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire "This book provides us with as much needed critical discussion of the possibilities and limitations of this enterprise while maintaining an optimistic perspective on the future of global democratic governance." --Walden Bello