Progressive politics need to retain some core values but at the same time address the modern agenda of human rights, gender issues, and environmental problems. Centre –left political forces and civil society movements ought to be effective in bridging the divide between principle and policy.

Social movements can become politically effective only as far as they propose and work for the promotion of feasible alternatives to neoliberal globalisation. Samir Amin describes democracy as an endless process of struggle where social movements continuously embody the demands and desires of the people.

The globalized world requires new modes of political representation and participation. “We could begin by inviting all national parliaments to designate a member that would normally sit in a consultative capacity in the American Congress, being given voting rights only when the question at issue affected her state”, proposes Richard Falk.

Humanitarianism is turning into the ultimate political ideology of the 21st century. Human rights activism has become an anti-politics, the defence of ‘innocents’ against power without any understanding of the operation of power and without the slightest interest in the collective action that would change the causes of poverty, disease or war.

What challenges does the globalization of insecurity pose for the theory and practice of governance? What might be the appropriate normative and institutional responses? Joseph Camilleri proposes a set of ideas for reshaping global democracy..

Disentangling the various competing initiatives for the establishment of a global Tobin Tax, Heikki Patomäki assesses the possibilities for the strengthening of the movement that backs its realization.

Multilingualism in the context of the European Social Forum assemblies stimulates participative and inclusive decision making, argues Nicole Doerr.