Democracy circulates in globalization in ways democratic theory is beginning to appreciate. While the impact of global flows of capital and labour, deepening interdependence, telematics, and computerization is being studied, the ways in which prevailing ideologies of globalization inadequately reassess the scope and concepts of democracy needs also to be contested. This essay argues that three dominant ideologies of globalization – neoliberal global capitalism, the internationalization of the liberal democratic state, and a global commercial culture – occlude such contestation over the scope and basic concepts of democracy in contemporary politics. The essay raises suspicions about the circulation of democracy in ideologies of globalization and about the politics of the language of globalization, and assesses the inadequate conceptualizations of democracy in each of the dominant stories. It concludes with suggestions for a democratic theory which respects the ambiguities of contemporary identity and action which globalization produces.
