ABSTRACT
Democracy is a contested concept in both theory and practice even at the national level. Here the definitions of democracy have themselves been issues of political struggle, both within the discourse of the European Enlightenment and in the discourse about Eurocentrism. The idea of world revolution is a broad notion that encompasses all kinds of resistance to hierarchy, regardless of whether or not it is coordinated. Hegemonic rivalry and world wars have been the main mechanism for "choosing" global leadership. The core-periphery hierarchy at the global level is organized spatially, but it is not simply a matter of latitude as implied by the North-South terminology. The World Social Forum (WSF) was established in 2001 as a counter-hegemonic popular project focusing on issues of global justice and democracy. Globalization from below and the formation of global socialist institutions will need to be facilitated by a loose confederation of world citizens organized as a democratic political network.
