SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND DEMOCRACY

Democracies are being challenged on new and different fronts: by globalization, by the fragmentation of postmodernity, by collective identities. Social movements challenge democracy by calling for readjustments in its decision-making processes. At the same time the social movements are forms of collective action that help the democracies--by keeping them in tension--to respond to the challenges arising from the other fronts. The book deals with this double relationship between social movements and democracy, the movements as challengers and as “maintainers” of democracy.