ABSTRACT
Introduction Two sources converge on an image of transnational democracy-one arising from the practice of contemporary activists and solidarity movements, and the second from a theoretical reflection on the requirements of global justice. Thus protest movements and grassroots solidarity networks have recently made claims for the relevance of new forms of autonomy and association that aim to democratize transnational power while also diminishing the role of traditional nation-states. At the same time, social and political philosophers are developing theories of human rights and cosmopolitan democracy that aim at more equal distributions of resources worldwide and more responsiveness of the institutions of global governance to those affected by their decisions. In this essay, I focus on this second, primarily theoretical, source of thinking about transnational democracy and will sketch some of its implications for institutional design. I will then lay out some of the difficult problems it engenders in regard to both the scope and processes of democracy in the upcoming period. Yet, this theory is in fact partly stimulated by the global justice movement itself and it aims to help articulate its theoretical bases. The conceptual discussion here is thus not divorced from activist innovation and current solidarity practices but is instead inspired by them.
