This ambitious book examines the multi-dimensional nature of democracy in the contemporary world and investigates the problems associated with its development, not only within individual nation-states but also in a trans-national and global setting.

The central issue can be stated thus: never has democracy enjoyed such universal support - politicians, leaders and citizens in all parts of the world professing respect for democratic norms. At the same time, democracy has never been so difficult to realize - the proliferation of democratic spaces in a globalizing world making it difficult to domesticate, and calling into question its "natural" grounding in the nation-state. Furthermore, citizens and claims-makers are increasingly aware of the legitimacy conferred by espousal of the cause of democratic deepening, leading to the discovery of democratic deficits at every turn.

The book begins by outlining the correspondence assumed between democracy and the nation-state in political theory, focusing on the liberal democratic assumption that popular sovereignty and state sovereignty are intertwined. This is coupled, in the second of the two introductory chapters by Roland Axtmann, with an investigation into the possibility of democracy beyond the nation-state. Interpreted from the standpoint of liberal democracy globalization (conceived primarily in economic terms) has failed to generate mechanisms for delivering global democracy, at the same time as weakening democracy within the nation-state. To counter this, Axtmann suggests that discourses of global democracy must deal more squarely with issues of economic and social inequality.

The following three chapters usefully problematize liberal models of democracy. The territorial assumptions underlying democracy are questioned by Derek Urwin, particularly the idea that the state, democracy and territory must be coexistent. Doomernick and Axtmann note that liberal democracy has a problem accommodating difference, to which end multicultural citizenship needs to be given substance. Barry Hindess takes up a similar theme, highlighting the failure of nation-state citizenship to accommodate difference and cultural plurality.

These concerns are echoed in many of the chapters on individual countries or regions. In the case of Canada (Peter Leslie) the democratic agenda faces demands not only from the separatist nationalism of Quebec, but must also accommodate demands for rights from indigenous peoples whose exclusion highlights the limitations of majoritarian democratic practices. In Australia, (Alastair Davidson) the failure to institute domestic debate on democratic reform has encouraged minorities to turn to the UN for redress on the basis that 'justice cannot be obtained where your oppressors make the decision' (p.169).

The willingness of the authors to place national democratic developments within a global frame is admirable: the chapter by Waetjen and Murray suggests that the increasing neo-liberal alignment of the ANC government of South Africa is promoting a new democratic dynamic which is struggling to combine the benefits of economic growth with the need for a coherent political community. According to Subrata Kumar Mitra, democratic contestation and acceptance of pluralism in India sustain a political civility which needs to become consolidated into a robust civil society, held to be a marker of western-style democracy. The democratic potential of civil society is also explored by Kaldor and Kavan in their survey of democracy in eastern Europe. Despite its positive democratic role civil society can be undermined by both economic imperatives and nationalist populism.

Turning to the question of globalization, Paul Hirst surveys the internationalisation of democracy in the twentieth century, one consequence of which was that it could no longer be treated solely as a domestic issue. He makes the important point that international governance - even if it entails a so-called loss of sovereignty (a claim easily dismissed by Hirst) - does not necessarily weaken nation-states. Nor does it necessary weaken democracy: democratic nation-states abide by international law and respect international agreements. One problem is that Hirst sees the nation-state as the optimum container for democracy. However, peoples do not necessarily need the vehicle of the nation-state in order to achieve democratic mobilization, nor are nation-states necessarily the key democratic actors in a globalizing world.

Benjamin Barber reinforces the case that the market has been globalized but not democracy (p.300). At root, this is because the nation-state, the seed-bed of democratic institutions, is being destroyed (p.301-2). Barber's thesis encapsulates many of the book's central concerns, and some of its weaknesses. For example, that globalization represents a threat to democracy rather than an opportunity, and without the nation-state the future of democracy is uncertain. The democratic potential of globalization to disseminate democratic norms is not explored, nor are institutions of global democratic governance acknowledged. Nevertheless, the book is successful in drawing attention to the open-ended nature of the democracy debate: democracy as a process, and a struggle.

In seeking to supplement questions of what constitutes democracy and how it might be expanded with a consideration of the settings within which democracy can best operate the book adds significantly to the literature in the field.

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