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Globalization and Democracy 197

neither are the causes they champion subjected to popular democratic
approval. If electing governments in a multi - party system is the basis of
democracy, how can global governance be democratized without changes
to democratic procedures? In section 5.3 , we explore alternative ways of
thinking of the activities of global social movements as democratizing.
Finally, in section 5.4 , we conclude with a brief summary of the cultural
politics in which global social movements are engaged, and their impor-
tance for democratization.

5.1 Democracy in Crisis: Political Parties and Elections

What is surely the defining feature of democracy for most people today
is the ballot box: citizens vote periodically in national elections for the
political party of their choice to form a government. It is by no means
obvious that this is all that is required for democracy, and contemporary
political sociologists have actually taken more interest in other aspects of
political participation, especially the activities of social movements. In
part, this is because the popularity and infl uence of political parties has
been in decline in Western democracies for decades, as indicated by the
steady fall in numbers of voters who participate in national elections in
countries where voting is not obligatory. Moreover, according to polling
data, confi dence and trust in political parties is lower than in any other

high - profile public organizations, including large companies, trade unions,
the press, and the police (Mair, 2008 : 128 – 9; The Power Enquiry, 2006;

Singh, 2003 : chapter 4 ). Decline in their popularity and influence has been
accompanied by changes in political parties themselves, which tend to
make them even less like the vehicles for the expression of popular will
they are ideally supposed to be, and even more like the organizations that
get professional politicians elected that they have always been in practice.
Nevertheless, to think of reforming democracy for complex, large - scale
societies without considering the role of multi - party elections to govern-
ment would seem to involve something other than democracy.
Historically, most political parties in Western Europe developed to
represent the preferences of voters for whom class divisions were most
important to the organization and regulation of national economies.
(The exceptions here concern those in consociational democracies, like
Holland and Belgium, in which parties represent religious divisions). In
the US, where the working - class movement has always been weak, a
liberal/conservative divide developed somewhat later than the Left/Right
distinction in Europe, with Democrats tending towards the Left and