ABSTRACT
Current debates on democracy must take into account the fact that democracy as it is presently practised in many Western societies is not the same as it was 40 years ago, let alone 10 years ago. On the one hand, democratic forms of government have expanded geographically in successive ‘waves’ of transition. On the other hand, a qualitative deepening or improvement has not accompanied such quantitative expansion. Quite on the contrary, giant multinational cor-porations emerged as new ‘sovereign’ post-national bodies having in practice eroded the sovereignty of Parliaments, while their power has become increasingly difficult to challenge through normal ‘checks and balances’ procedures. The gargantuan budgets of the largest mega-corporations notoriously dwarf the budgets of most independent states and are certainly ‘larger than the economies of many small and medium-sized countries’.1 Yet, nobody has democratically elected the directors, managers and boards of these financial giants, let alone exerted some control on their actions, the consequences of which can affect the lives of millions.
