Introduction

Border crossings increase, old political spaces are disrupted, new spaces are created, and there are ‘democratic deficits’ all round. Global changes threaten conventional forms of democratic representation and accountability. They open up new needs and possibilities for democratisation beyond the territory of national states. They raise challenging questions about the future of national democracy and the need for new forms of democracy in transnational arenas. Pushed up the political agenda by the ‘anti-globalisation’ or ‘anti-capitalism’ movement, these issues span the spectrum of scales from global to local.