Democracy: From City-states to a Cosmopolitan Order?

This article traces the development of the idea of democracy from city-states and the early republican tradition to liberalism and Marxism. The relevance of leading conceptions of democracy to contemporary circumstances are then explored. In light of the complex interconnections among states and societies, a set of arguments are developed which offer a new agenda for democratic theory which departs from an exclusive focus on particular political communities and the nation-state. After an examination of a number of key models of the international order – the states system, the UN Charter framework – the case is made for a cosmopolitan international democracy. While such a case is fraught with difficulties, strong grounds are presented for its indispensability to the maintenance and development of democracy both within pre-established borders and across them.