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What does it mean to speak of ‘global democracy’?

On 6-8 December 2009 the Building Global Democracy programme convened a dialogue of diversities on this question in Cairo, Egypt. Core to the discussions were 40 researchers and practitioners from 29 countries spread across all world regions. The group was also richly diverse in age, culture, gender and race.

How was global democracy understood through this unique exchange?

The conversation generated the following main propositions which the group offers for wider consideration, further debate, and action. Ideas of global democracy developed on these premises could make far-reaching contributions to a much-needed democratisation of contemporary globalisation.

1.         In today’s more global world some political decisions must be global. For those actions to be legitimate and effective it is important that all concerned participate in and hold control over the process.

2.         Currently predominant forms of globalisation are severely undemocratic. ‘Rule by and for the people’ is very weak in relation to global companies, global communications, global ecology, global finance, global health, global knowledge and global migration.

3.         The history of building global democracy is only beginning, and conceptualising the notion is a key part of the endeavour.

4.         It seems doubtful that ideas of democracy inherited from nation-state contexts provide a sufficient basis for conceptions of global democracy. To some (perhaps far-reaching) extent, conceptualising global democracy requires an expanded imagination, another language, and new modes of knowledge.

5.         The exercise of conceptualising global democracy needs to be connected to and helpful for concrete lives, institutions, instruments, policies and struggles. An excessive preoccupation with abstractions can become detached from concrete problems and undermine capacities to mobilise people. The problem of conceptualising global democracy needs to remain directly linked to processes of achieving it.

6.         It is important always to ask who defines global democracy and for what purpose. Definitions always come from somewhere and promote certain interests.

7.         Democracy as a key value for a good society is deeply interconnected with other core values such as justice, liberty, peace, diversity, human development, and ecological sustainability. However, different perspectives are taken on the precise links between, and relative priorities of, democracy and other values.

8.         Democracy extends well beyond formal institutional arrangements such as elections, parliaments and constitutions. Holistically, democracy is also a political culture, a political economy, a political ecology, and a political psychology.

9.         A universal consensus on conceptions of global democracy is neither available nor desirable. The principles, institutions and practices of global democracy cannot but be contested, sometimes very deeply. This is not a problem inasmuch as dialogues among diversities – including the associated tensions – are needed to make any democracy real. However, diversity needs to be made a basis of solidarity rather than fragmentation, to foster harmony amidst contradictions. Moreover, 'difference' must not become a rationalisation of practices that violate human dignity, human potential, human solidarity and human survival.

10.     Listening is key to the communication and negotiation of diversities around global democracy. This means veritable listening, particularly in relationships of inequality. Capacities for cross-cultural listening with mutual civility, respect, reciprocity and care are a vital skill in global democracy, as important as the ability to use legal and institutional instruments.

11.     Global democracy needs to encompass and include many peoples: not only nations, but also communities based in shared class, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender, generation, and sexuality.

12.     Gender injustice has undermined all national democracies. Global democracy should be grasped as an opportunity to work towards gender equity at all levels.

13.     Youth by their challenging ideas, innovative practices and dynamic movements provide a leading force in constructing global democracy.

14.     Global democracy must encompasses and interconnect with democracy in household, local, national, regional and global spheres. Democracy in global realms cannot be achieved without a simultaneous and complementary realisation of democracy on other scales.

15.     The place of existing global governance institutions in building global democracy is and will remain disputed. Reformists regard these instruments as open to substantial democratising repair. More radical critics regard them as irredeemable.

16.     It is vital to link reflections on conceptualising global democracy to the expansion of resources to advance practices of global democracy. In particular greater attention is needed to accelerate citizen learning for global democracy.

17.     Conceptualising global democracy is not an exercise with an end. The reflections are ever historically evolving through explorations and struggles.

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