There is a major contradiction in contemporary politics: there has been a wave of democratization that has swept across much of the world, while at the same time globalization appears to have reduced the social forces that have built democracy historically. This book, by an international group of authors, analyses the ways in which local politics in developing countries--often neglected in work on democratization--render democratic experiments more or less successful in realizing substantial democracy.

"Rethinking Popular Representation" starts out from the deep concern with contemporary tendencies towards depoliticization of public issues and popular interests. It is argued that the root cause of this is flawed representation, due to both elitist institution building and fragmented citizen participation. Hence the book makes a case for the need to rethink more democratic popular representation. Towards this end, the book outlines an overarching analytical framework for popular representation, examines key theoretical issues and empirical experiences of popular representation, and provides a policy-oriented conclusion.

Transformative democratic politics are necessary to the advance of substantive democratization. They are vital to the improvement of popular control over public affairs and for promoting economic growth and social welfare. In this diverse collection, the authors examine the political dynamics of democratization in the Global South, and the potential and problems of transformative strategies in new growth economies, as well as the benefits for post-clientelist transformations. If the contemporary challenge for democratization in the Global South is to substantiate formal and minimalist democracy, the contribution of this book is to point to the centrality of transformative democratic politics.

This book starts out from the deep concern with contemporary tendencies towards depoliticisation of public issues and popular interests and makes a case for rethinking more democratic popular representation. It outlines a framework for popular representation, examines key issues and experiences and provides a policy-oriented conclusion.

There is a major contradiction in contemporary politics: there has been a wave of democratization that has swept across much of the world, while at the same time globalization appears to have reduced the social forces that have built democracy historically. This book, by an international group of authors, analyzes the ways in which local politics in developing countries - often neglected in work on democratization - render democratic experiments more or less successful in realizing substantial democracy.

Given the weaknesses of mainstream democratisation since the 1980s, the authors present a cutting edge examination of dynamics of political change in the direction of more substantive democracy. While focusing on the Global South, they also draw comparisons from historical and contemporary experiences from Scandinavia.