Page 210 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

196 Globalization and Democracy

is political parties that make governments, and voting in national elections

is commonly seen as the defining act by which citizens make their indi-
vidual views count in liberal - democracies. As citizens become increasingly
mistrustful of politicians, however, and voting rates decline, what becomes
of the ideal of democracy as representative government? Are multi - party
elections in which large numbers of citizens participate essential to democ-
racy? If so, are democracies in which this is no longer a feature now
tipping over into something else? Have we reached “ post - democracy ”
(Crouch, 2004 )?
In political institutions beyond the state, elections to offi cial positions
are practically non - existent. The exception is Members of the European
Parliament, which all European citizens are entitled to elect. However,
European citizens take even less interest in European elections than they
do in national elections. Voter turnout for European elections is roughly
20 percent lower than in national elections; it is falling, and less than half
now vote across the EU. In addition, most people who do participate in
European elections actually vote on national issues, using their votes to
punish unpopular governments rather than voting for parties to deal with
Europe - wide concerns. The fact that, although parties have formed cohe-
sive coalitions in the European Parliament, there are no large and infl u-
ential European parties to mobilize specifically on European issues is

telling in this respect (Hix, 2008 : 596 – 7). The formal rights European
citizens have to vote in European elections do not begin to solve the

problem of the democratic deficit of the European Union.
In section 5.2 , we look a little more widely at democratic ideals in
international political and legal institutions: how might democracy work
beyond the state? One of the most promising developments here is that
of international human rights law which, at least in principle, assures the
individual rights that are necessary for democratic participation and
which is itself developing through relatively democratic procedures.
However, the development of international human rights law has been
aimed at ensuring rights to democratic participation within states.
Democratic procedures between states are a good deal more diffi cult to
imagine as we will see from a brief look at the existing voting procedures
of Inter - Governmental Organizations.
The way in which global social movements tend to see themselves as
contributing to democratization beyond the state is through global civil
society. Social movement organizations and networks are not, however,
themselves democratic in any straightforward sense. Some, by no means
all, NGOs have large memberships, some are relatively transparent and
accountable, but NGO leaders are not elected by popular vote, and