Structure
Nevertheless, despite this process, democracy has never before shown so clear marks of weakness: today, many scholars point out that we are facing an increasing crisis of democracy, which is mainly caused by globalization.
While at national level, where the democratic powers still lie, there are less and less important decisions to be taken, at the international level there are not democratic institutions, but governmental actors (the Great Powers) or non-governmental actors (such as banks and transnational corporations, global civil society movements, mass media, criminal and terrorist organizations, etc.) which are beyond any democratic control.
The problem can be summarized by the fact that, as George Monbiot points out, “in our age everything has been globalized except our consent. Democracy alone has been confined in the nation state”[1]. Under these circumstances many authors ask themselves how long can democracy survive in a world in which citizens are excluded from decision-making on the future of mankind. Globalisation must be democratised before it destroys democracy.
Today is increasingly shared among scholars and civil society movements the opinion that a democratic decision-making process represents the necessary premise for a just and peaceful world order. It is also widely recognized that politics is affected by a heavy delay in facing changes caused by globalization and that new institutional instruments are needed to govern the new social reality.
The European Parliament, i.e. the first supranational parliament in history, represents the laboratory of a new statehood and of a new kind of democracy. Its success shows that it can be possible to extend democracy beyond the boundaries of the nation-state.
Of course, a parliament represents only one side of democracy and, although it is a necessary one, it is not enough. A working international democracy needs a government, a court, a constitutional charter, and all the elements that constitute a democratic system:
- a gender democracy;
- a participatory democracy;
- a social democracy;
- an electoral democracy;
- a cultural democracy;
- an information democracy;
- a cosmopolitan democracy.
[1] G. Monbiot, The Age of Consent, Harper, London 2003, p. 1.