Invitation to an International Dialogue on the Party System, Democracy and Globalisation

Time: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, at 14.00-17.00.
Venue: The Old Students House (Tiedekuntasali, 2nd floor), Mannerheimintie 3, Helsinki, Finland.

During the era of globalisation, political parties have been one sphere of social action where the process of increasing international interaction has not been remarkable. While governments, corporations, social movements and non-governmental organisations have phenomenally increased global interaction the political parties have remained to a large extend limited to national spheres or regional settings.

Recently there has been increasing interest in international interaction of political parties and debates about the emergence of global political parties. This international dialogue organised by NIGD contributes to the discussion from the specific angle of democracy.

The dialogue is part of NIGD's project that aims at identifying further elements for discussion on the party system and global political party formations. The project will address the question "What would be the scope for an emergence of democratic international political parties?" Further dialogues and two publications are planned. This first dialogue is chaired by Thomas Wallgren, chair of NIGD.

Programme

14.00 Coffee

14.30 Opening presentations by NIGD associates:

- Vijay Pratap, India (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam)
- Teivo Teivainen, Finland/Peru (Academy of Finland/San Marcos University)
- Thomas Wallgren, Finland (University of Helsinki)

Invited comments:

- Digvijay Singh (Janta Dal United, India)
- Sunilam (Samajwadi Party, India)
- Ruth Genner (Green Party, Switzerland)
- Tord Björk (Peoples' Movements Study Group, Sweden

Discussion

Kindly register your participation by sending an e-mail to Katarina Sehm-Patomäki at katarina@nigd.org or SMS +358-40-5084026.

For more information on the NIGD project, please contact Marko Ulvila at +358-50-3310202, or marko.ulvila@kaapeli.fi or visit the web site www.nigd.org/docs/GlobalPoliticalPartiesMay2005