Discursive representation and the struggle for democracy

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - International Politics - General and Theories, grade: 1.0, The Australian National University, language: English, abstract: The World Trade Organization (WTO) has become the guardian angel of trade

liberalisation, but its growing global power especially after the 1999 Seattle debacle

has engendered growing public scrutiny.2 A number of scholars, activists and critics

are concerned with the democratic deficit in system-level institutions, in particular the

WTO, and are searching for solutions and alternatives to promote democratic

legitimacy an accountability in global institutions.3 In this modern era of globalisation

and democracy, in which the forces of a globalised economy constrain and elude the

control of the nation state and its populus, a crucial question comes to the fore4: Can

democracy in its present form, as bounded to territorial and sovereign states, address

the increasing transnationalisation of society or is there a need to advocate a new

pillar of democratic interaction more suitable to counteract real existing globalisation

and its proponents?

This