ABSTRACT
To discuss globalization and national pluralism in the context of Western societies involves discussion about democracy: individual and collective rights, the territorial division of powers, representative and participatory institutions, control mechanisms, the use and hierarchy of collective symbols, national and international decision-making processes, the articulation of state and non-state collectives within emerging supranational organizations such as the European Union and so on. The key question revolves around how to ‘improve’ liberal democracies in contexts that are characterized by cultural pluralism and globalization, and that have become much more complex and plural than traditional liberal and democratic theories had estimated.1 This ‘improvement’ should include ethical aspects as well as functional and institutional ones. In this sense we could say that even the very concept of pluralism has currently become more plural. Aspects that were not present in the concept of ‘pluralism’ in the legitimizing basis of liberal democracies, such as globalization or the diversification of values and cultural characteristics of collectives that coexist in one same democracy, are now part of the normative and institutional agenda of issues to be resolved in this new century. It seems appropriate to review some of the legitimizing bases of democratic liberalism and constitutionalism in order better to adapt them to globalization and the growing cultural pluralism of Western societies. It will also be worthwhile to revise territorial models linked to liberalism and constitutionalism, such as federalism.
