Democracy Beyond the State: The European Dilemma and the Emerging Global Order

Political authority in today's leading democracies rests on generally shared perceptions by a given people that their government is responsible to them and grants each individual citizen legal equality. Yet since the dawn of the industrial age, democratic governments have in fact presided over economic systems that function on the basis of an unequal distribution of real resources. This thought-provoking book explores the widening gap between legal ideal and economic reality, which in turn undermines the inherent legitimacy of democratic systems. Closing that gap, moreover, is much more difficult when economies become "global" and the boundaries separating the people of different democracies are eroded. Distinctive bonds between political power and social obligation begin to break down. The effort of governments to continue governing opens up "democratic deficits." Pressures build to reconstitute political authority beyond the state, and governance-in-practice grows ever more distant from democracy-in-principle. Nowhere is the deepening dilemma more evident than in the European Union. This book examines the contemporary breakdown and transformation of the democratic welfare state in Europe and draws fascinating contrasts with the situation among the signatories to the North America Free Trade Agreement. In a cohesive and insightful collection of essays, a group of distinguished political scientists debates the implications of these trends both for theory and for policy.