Social movements are seen alternately as actors creating and extending democracy, and as actors obstructing and destabilizing it. The notion of politics as liberation is confronted by the notion of politics as order. But in order to understand the full impact of social movements on politics and social developments, we must take both of these aspects into account. Social movements may challenge, change or sustain the institutions and norms of the society of their time. It is on the borderline between ideals of autonomous freedom and the upholding of order that politics is created and social changes are initiated.
The common good as well as a will to democratize global power is used to stem the wave of privatization. There is more to globalization, however, than de−politicization, privatization, and the spread of market forces. Alongside these we have seen the emergence of what might be called new forms of citizenship. The global norms that have guided the supranational bodies have created new political opportunities. In parallel with these bodies, new transnational public bodies have been created with the aim of bringing pressure to bear on the denationalized order. The social forums, particularly the World Social Forum, are clear examples. The forums are helping to develop a global grass−roots identity, to formulate political demands for global rights, and to establish a transnational public body for political interaction.
The new social movements were critical of the idea of political representation and the division between public and private, as they considered that a state−centred nderstanding of politics merely concealed the inequalities that existed outside the state and put them beyond reach of change. The activists in the global justice movement have a different critical emphasis. They prefer to defend the public and the political institutions, and other forms of political autonomy that have been undermined by globalization. They express a will to restore a sense of the public in an age that is perceived as far too focused on the private. One
seen alternately as actors creating and extending democracy, and as actors
obstructing and destabilizing it. The notion of politics as liberation is
confronted by the notion of politics as order.
But in order to understand the full impact of social movements on politics and
social developments, we must take both of these aspects into account. Social
movements may challenge, change or sustain the institutions and norms of the
society of their time. It is on the borderline between ideals of autonomous
freedom and the upholding of order that politics is created and social changes
are initiated.
with the aim of bringing pressure to bear on the denationalized order. The
social forums, particularly the World Social Forum, are clear examples. The
forums are helping to develop a global grass−roots identity, to formulate political demands for global rights, and to establish a transnational public body for political interaction.
and the division between public and private, as they considered that a state−centred nderstanding of politics merely concealed the inequalities that existed outside the state and put them beyond reach of change. The activists in
the global justice movement have a different critical emphasis. They prefer to
defend the public and the political institutions, and other forms of political
autonomy that have been undermined by globalization. They express a will to
restore a sense of the public in an age that is perceived as far too focused on the private. One