ABSTRACT
The surge in right-wing politics and the spread of disintegrative tendencies have made it increasingly difficult to address existential global risks, including climate change and runaway technologies. This chapter argues that reversing these trends requires the globalisation of democratic politics, conceived as a fourth wave of democratisation. The first three waves occurred between the 1820s and 1920s, after World War II, and in the 1970s and 1980s. Each was followed by waves of democratic backsliding, the last of which is manifested in today's rise of the populist right. A fourth wave of democratisation is needed to extend democracy beyond the nation-state into global institutions, leading existing bodies to be reformed and new ones established, including global regulatory and tax organisations, an international clearing union and a world parliament. Such institutions will reshape global power structures, regulate and tax capital, steer the global political economy towards ecological sustainability and expand democratic participation on a planetary scale. A new form of political agency in the shape of a world political party, rooted in transnational solidarity, would aim to build democratic governance and elements of world statehood. The chapter concludes by outlining some programmatic features and possible contours of such a party.
