Democracy as Human Rights: Freedom and Equality in the Age of
Globalization. By Michael Goodhart. New York: Routledge, 2005. 256p.
$95.00 cloth, $26.95 paper.
Globalization, which had its modern origins in the capitalist
expansion of the nineteenth century, has reached a level of development
that challenges the sovereign independence, power, and authority of the
nation-state, the primary actor in international politics for the last
three hundred years. In so doing, it undermines popular sovereignty as
traditionally understood in contemporary democracies. In his book, Michael
Goodhart provides a tightly reasoned analysis of globalization's
challenge to sovereignty and democratic theory, and puts forward a
provocative redefinition of democracy that, he argues, can withstand
globalization, even flourish in a globalized world.