Democracy in a Global World: Human Rights and Political Participation in the 21st Century

by Deen K. Chatterjee (Editor)

The chapters in this volume deal with timely issues regarding democracy in theory and in practice in today's globalized world. Authored by leading political philosophers of our time, they appear here for the first time. The essays challenge and defend assumptions about the role of democracy as a viable political and legal institution in response to globalization, keeping in focus the role of rights at the normative foundations of democracy in a pluralistic world. Through an examination of key topics of current relevance, with contrasting views of the leading theorists, the chapters address the most relevant theories and forms of globalization, traditional democratic paradigms and their limits, public deliberation and democratic participation, the moral hazards of imperial democracy, and the future of liberal democracy. In addition to suggesting new perspectives on democracy, they use the current debate on justice, human rights, sovereignty, and cultural relativism to shed light on enduring questions about politics, culture, and global development. This timely and provocative collection will be of interest to anyone concerned with democracy, human rights, global justice, economic development, poverty, international law, peace, and various aspects of globalization.

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Deen K. Chatterjee is Senior Advisor and Professorial Fellow in the S.J.Quinney College of Law and a Global Ethics Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York City. Earlier he was a member of the philosophy faculty at the University of Utah. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. His areas of specialization are justice and global initiative, ethics of war and peace, and philosophy of religion and culture.

Professor Chatterjee has held visiting faculty appointments at the University of Washington, The New School University, and the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Shipboard Education, where he sailed around the world for a semester on the Institute's "floating campus." He has also been a Faculty Fellow at the University of Utah and Eccles Faculty Fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center, a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder and at the University of Oregon, an NEH Fellow at the Summer Institute of The United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University on a David P. Gardner Faculty Fellowship.

Professor Chatterjee has been twice awarded the Thomas D. Dee II Endowment Grant for Teaching Enhancement at the University of Utah, most recently in 2006-07. In addition, he is a recipient of the ASUU Student Choice Teaching Award in 2010-2011 and, also in the same year, the Annual Faculty Award from the Center for Disability Services in recognition of his support of students with disabilities on campus. In 2007, he was awarded the Pax Natura Peace Prize and in 2000, he was awarded the Barbara and Norman Tanner Faculty Mentor Grant for the Prevention of Violence.

Professor Chatterjee is the Faculty Advisor of SHIFT (Secular Humanism, Inquiry and Freethought)--a campus student organization. Earlier, he was the Faculty Advisor of the campus chapters of Freethought Society and Amnesty International.

Professor Chatterjee travels widely as a hobby and as part of his profession. Along with his various conference and project engagements nationally and internationally, his recent travels included a visit to Costa Rica (summer 2012) where, as a trustee of Pax Natura, he attended an award ceremony with the President of Costa Rica at her residence in San José.

- University of Utah