Building Global Democracy

Practitioners of the liberal contractarian tradition of political theory complacently assume that merely to write about 'individuals' and to disregard social or political context is an intellectually persuasive and sustainable position. This assumption re

This article combines discussions of the politics of education with personal story telling to remind us why the continuing struggle over schooling - over what is and is not taught, over how it is taught and evaluated, over how students with different char

A key aim of democratic public policy should be the provision of hope. It is often argued that a key element of hope is not only a drive for equity in the face of neo-liberal marketization, but also the opportunity for the practice of agency by (especiall

This paper addresses the question "does international democracy promotion work?" It argues that the simple answer is both yes and no, and that it all depends - on how we define democracy promotion and its objectives, and on which particular approaches, me

This paper proposes an Ethiopian Democratic Millennium Goal that articulates freedom, development, and social justice. It examines how the conceptual stretching of democracy, nation, and civil society has created epistemic obstacles that prevent Ethiopian

The rise of transnational systems and networks of governance and norms since the 1990s has fostered the hope that a new global order, described by the UN as "global governance," operating through shared goals, purposes, and values as well as consensus for

This article compares the views of Turkish secular feminist and Islamist activists and/or scholars with respect to the question of the compatibility of Islam and feminism. The issue of whether Islam is compatible with feminism has been a subject of debate

By suggesting predictable and controllable patterns of development, the literature on global governance seems to simplify the world for decision-making tractability. In this respect, security narratives often remain analytically frozen, while the dynamics

The south's civil service is huge, containing both Khartoum's former employees and the thousands who served in rebel-held areas as administrators. Hiring more people, including women who have returned to the South with skills, has been discouraged and bad

Drawing upon Karl Polanyi's journalistic writings and unpublished lectures from the 1920s and 1930s, this article reconstructs the lineaments of his research programme that was to assume its finished form in The Great Transformation. It identifies and cor

Migration exposes a central inconsistency in neoliberal globalisation because, if capital, money, information and knowledge should all flow freely across the globe, then why not people? This broad introductory survey begins with a critical review of persp

The new constitution will create a free universal health care system, compulsory health insurance and free education up to university level, and will make homemakers eligible for social security. It will also legalise same-sex civil unions, and will grant

"We're at the end of the beginning of the Chinese surge into Africa," said team leader Chris Alden of the London School of Economics and Political Science. "China is diversifying its investments and changing its policies. It is developing a sustainable en

The right to vote ultimately expresses political membership in democratic states. The logic behind franchise rules in a particular state tells us much about how that state conceives its polity. This becomes clear if we study voting rights of marginal grou

Is 'consociational democracy' a sustainable working model for deeply divided societies? Despite its relative success in Lebanon, rapid urbanization has presented serious challenges to the rigid confessional power-sharing arrangement. In the city of Beirut

This article analyzes the "realist" support for the current regime as well as the support for democracy as a set of "idealist" principles in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It also analyzes political suppor

Boris Kagarlitsky is one of Russia's best known Marxist dissidents and who has written widely on a range of issues. His latest offering is one of his best. It is a history of Russia (and the Soviet Union) that situates it firmly in a wider European and wo

Citizens' participation' is a fashionable political concept, but one that increasingly means all things to all people. It is time to reclaim 'participation' from those who would use it simply to legitimise existing political institutions. This issue of Eu

As the neoconservative idea of a clash of civilisations is increasingly challenged, a number of liberal writers - Paul Berman, Nick Cohen, Martin Amis, Andrew Anthony, Bernard Henry-Lévy and Christopher Hitchens - are rethinking the `war on terror' as a c

A collection of studies published in Argentina shows that quotas for women on electoral candidate lists have been successful in achieving a certain level of gender balance in the parliaments of many Latin American countries. However, it says that more too