ABSTRACT
The politics of liberal-democratic societies is characterised by a process of fragmentation, in which integrating institutions and frameworks of political action are faced with new challenges. The traditional ideologies of politics have diminishing appeal. Those agencies of change which provided the basis for radical politics, notably the institutions of the labour movement, are increasingly split up into a host of smaller forces and coexist with other movements and sources of identity. Finally, the nation-state as a framework of democratic politics is less effective in bringing citizens together. It no longer provides a structure through which individuals and groups can identify themselves as members of a democratic community.
