Lately it feels like the world is constantly on fire. Every time you switch on the television, radio or log on to the internet there is a new protest, another latent revolution, another explosive expression of civil discontent. On one hand, it’s a thoroughly depressing comment on the sheer numbers of people who are unhappy with the status quo. On the other, you could argue that protest is the most complete expression of democracy in the world, and what we are entering is a new era of reclaiming citizen participation from an increasingly hegemonic vision of global governance.
I like the latter formulation, perhaps because I am fundamentally a hopeful person, but also because I think that gives us a thread that unites anti-government protests in Chile with mass mobilizations in Iraq, uniting citizen movements in Sudan and Algeria on the way. The end of the Cold War brought a version of global governance that made a lot of big promises but has stuttered in delivering on them. Underpinning much of the socio-political infrastructure of today – the United Nations and other international organizations, the premises of humanitarian and military intervention – is the idea that liberal democracy is the best option for governance for the largest group of people. Engendering compliance with this model through both persuasive and coercive means has been presented as the march towards progress for many.
