ABSTRACT
Democracy therefore needs to be extended throughout society and embedded into social, cultural and economic life. Since the early 1990s and the heady days of the movement for political democratisation and economic liberalisation, the notion of participation has disappeared from the vocabulary not only of political parties and governments, but often of trade unions as well. Political democracy has been a key dimension in the development process throughout the 1990s. Trade unionism and participation have been designed for, and implemented in, workplaces, particularly enterprises. The citizens of every country need to develop a vision of their future, and reach a basic agreement on long-term political, economic and social objectives; in other words, they need to produce a vision on society. At national level, civil society, and trade unions particularly, should be playing a key role in monitoring policy implementation. Trade unions need to take up a number of challenges simultaneously both at the workplace and in national and international arenas.
