Democratic mundialization
Mundialization is the name of one of the movements aiming at
democratic globalization.
Democratic globalisation is the concept of an institutional system of global
democracy that would give world citizens a say in world organizations. This would, in the view of its proponents, bypass nation-states, corporate entities, ideological
NGOs, cults and mafias.
One of its most prolific proponents is the
British political thinker
David Held. In the last decade he published a dozen books regarding the spread of democracy from territorially defined nation states to a system of
global governance that encapsulates the entire
universe.
These proponents state that democratic globalization's purpose is to:
*expand
mundialization in a different way to economic
globalization and "make people closer, more united and protected" though what this means in practice is only vaguely defined.
*have it reach all fields of activity and knowledge, not only the economic one, even if that one is crucial to develop the
well-being of
world citizens. This implies some intervention not only in the economic and political life of the individual but also in their access to culture and education.
*give
world citizens a
democratic access (e.g.,
presidential voting for
United Nations Secretary-General by citizens and
direct election of members of a
United Nations Parliamentary Assembly) and a say to those global activities.
Supporters of the democratic globalization movement draw a distinction between their movement and the one most popularly known as the '
anti-globalization' movement, claiming that their movement avoids ideological agenda about economics and social matters although, in practice, it is often difficult to distinguish between the two camps. Democratic globalization supporters state that the choice of political orientations should be left to the world citizens, via their participation in world democratic institutions and direct vote for
world presidents (see
presidentialism).
Some supporters of the "anti-globalization movement" do not necessarily disagree with this position. For example,
George Monbiot, normally associated with the anti-globalization movement (who prefers the term
Global Justice Movement) in his work
Age of Consent has proposed similar democratic reforms of most major global institutions, suggesting direct democratic elections of such bodies by citizens, and suggests a form of "
federal world government."
Democratic globalization, proponents claim, would be reached by creating democratic
global institutions and changing
international organizations (which are currently
intergovernmental institutions controlled by the nation-states), into global ones controlled by voting by the citizens. The movement suggests to do it gradually by building a limited number of democratic global institutions in charge of a few crucial fields of common interest. Its long term goal is that these institutions federate later into a full-fledged
democratic world government.
And they propose the creation of world services for citizens, like world
civil protection and
prevention (from
natural hazards) services.
*
Cosmopolitanism*
Democratic peace theory*
Federalism*
One Big Union*
Federal World Government*
Global governance*
Internationalism (politics)*
Multilateralism*
National sovereignty*
Presidentialism*
Recursionism*
Supranationalism*
United Nations*
World political party*
World citizens
*
Transnational progressivism*
Philosopher Tony Smith critique of Held*
Democratic globalization*
Committee for a Democratic UN Making the UN system more effective and democratic
