Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Is This What Democracy Looks Like? The politics of the anti-globalization movement in North America

2003; Routledge; Volume: 39; Issue: 39 Linguagem: Inglês

0081-0606

Stephanie Ross,

Labor Movements and Unions

In multiple ways, the anti-globalization movement invokes the democratic imaginary. A central element of the movement's critique of contemporary capitalism is that corporate power organized on a global scale undermines the capacity of citizens and national communities to make independent decisions about social, economic and political priorities. Anti-globalization activists challenge governments that enact international trade and investment agreements which enshrine the interests of multinational capital, arguing that both the means --the restriction of dissent and meaningful participation in decision-making--and the ends--the ordering of society according to the interests of the few--violate even minimal norms of democratic practice, such as majoritarianism and representativeness. Although by no means characterized by a coherent ideological approach, especially to the question of alternatives, the anti-globalization movement can be said to be united in its appeal to citizens' democratic sensibilities.