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The article addresses issues related to the growing importance of non-governmental organizations & social movements in world politics. The key question that the article deals with is whether there are structures of global political activism in the making? In other words, is a "global civil society" being constituted? If yes, how does this "global civil society" relate to local actors? Are global actors partners in the building of local activism? In addition, how do the actors of the "global civil society" relate to states? Do they transcend the confines of the state? In order to answer these questions, the article first describes the evolving debate around the issue of transnational relations. During the last decade this issue has become an important research problem in at least two social scientific disciplines -the theory of international relations & the theory of collective action. Moreover, the attention paid to transnational social movements & net-works of non-governmental organizations has influenced debates in certain fields of political theory where actors described as "global civil society" came to be perceived as the manifestation of reformist hopes associated with globally organized civic activism. This activism is believed to hold the promise of future global democratization. In sum, the issue of transnational relations & transnational political action is an interdisciplinary problem. The aim of this article is to answer the specified questions above. It reflects the most important aspects of the debate on transnational political action. The ambition of the article is to critically assess both empirically oriented approaches & normatively motivated explorations of the possibilities for global democratization through political involvement of transnational movements & non-governmental organizations. The paper maintains that the concept of "global civil society" is applicable for the description of political action "beyond borders" only under the condition that it is not understood as an alternative to the institutions of the modern state & that it is not used in an ideological way. References. Adapted from the source document.

The article aims to present the three-level model of the EU, from the perspective of regional actors. The article analyzes the mechanisms of interaction among regional actors in reference to the level at which they are realized. Whereas the third level (regional level) is based on regional cooperation (cross-border, interregional and transnational) and regional partnership (realized by regional management), the state level and European level are based on the aggregation and articulation of regional interests. The third level follows the interest of a region. Mechanisms at the first and second levels follow the interest of a regional actor. Adapted from the source document.

This article deals with the political problematisation of gender inequalities in the context of the European Union's gender equality policies on a supranational level. Based on the concept of transnational advocacy networks (TAN), the first part of the article presents the European Women's Lobby and units at the European Commission dealing with gender equality policies as two key actors in TAN that promote gender equality issues within the structures of the EU. The article then moves on to describe policy frame analysis as an approach to analysing the way in which the gender inequalities addressed by these actors are politically problematised in three policy documents connected to the European Commission's 'Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men 2006–2010'. The analysis focuses on the main frames in these documents that legitimise the existence of an independent policy field concerned with gender equality at the EU level and discusses the ramifications of these frames for the promotion of gender equality; for example, how certain policy measures might lead to different outcomes when promoted within different frames.

Clearly visible changes of forms, symbolism and patterns of transnational collective mobilization and political protest have taken place roughly over the course of the last decade. The aim of this article is to introduce an actor that represents these changes (and one of the key non-state collective actors of the present) -- the Global Justice Movement (GJM) -- through mapping the major related debates. Basically, two principal axes of both academic and political discourse on GJM are distinguished: first, there are the debates on the static or lasting attributes of the movement, and second, there are those on the dynamics and processional character of the movement. This text focuses on a dynamic approach to the study of collective action and strives to incorporate fundamental analytical and political arguments in their respective fields of study. Adapted from the source document.