Suchergebnisse

The international system faces two antithetical transnational forces. On the one hand, there is globalization, and on the other a prevalent rise in nationalist and sovereign claims emerging as a backlash to the growing net of transnational relations. Subsequently and following the revolution in individualization since the Cold War, individuals now have more than one social affiliation, and their affiliative choices are taken increasingly autonomously. With their presence in processes of foreign affairs, public demands can no longer be overlooked. The present article discusses the governmental and NGO actors of fundamental freedom across the globe, international advocacy aimed at either reaching global agreements, or at pointing out violations, and public diplomacy as the gray area between human rights and diplomatic practice. The second part of the article has for subject the interplay between foreign policy and human rights, and the improvement of human rights mediation. O. van Zijl

Many authors have issued anxious warnings about a disturbing "backlash against democracy"—this in spite of the growing affirmation of democracy as an international standard against which other systems are measured. This article considers the role of democracy promotion, which is understood as activities aimed at assisting in consolidating, disseminating, and advocating democratic governance in this context. The theoretical framework in which the promotion debate occurs is highlighted in order to show how the concept of "democracy" is socially constructed and interpreted in different ways by the various promoters. The article examines the main targets of this activity (state structures and civil societies) and compares two major supporters of democracy (the European Union and the United States). On this basis, claims about a "democratic rollback" are challenged by reference to hybrid regimes that contrast the idea of democracy with that of civilization. The backlash is better understood as resistence to some of the methods of promotion and some promoters, rather than as being against democracy itself, and the article holds that the best way to promote good governance worldwide is through an oblique, cosmopolitan or European-style democracy that fosters the multiple and processual grounds on which democratic polities can flourish.