Dialogues on Party Systems and Global Democratisation (available in e format only)

NIGD Working Paper 2/2006

Katarina Sehm Patomäki and Marko Ulvila (eds)

 Within the frames of NIGD's project on global political parteis and in order to facilitate the inclusion of voices outside the world of writing, NIGD organised four dialogues encouraging discussions on political parties, democracy and globalisation. The first dialogue took place in Helsinki in September 2005, a second one followed in New Delhi in November. The third and fourth dialogues were held in January 2006 in conjunction with the polycentric World Social Forums in Bamako, Mali and Caracas, Venezuela. At these dialogues, we presented and distributed early and partial drafts of the working papers.

This Working Paper, Dialogues on Party Systems and Global Democratisation includes complete reports from the four dialogues, presentations of the Party Internationals and selected background documents.

Dialogues on Party Systems and Global Democratisation

Democratic Politics Globally, Elements for a Dialogue on Global Political Party Formations

NIGD Working Paper 1/2006

Katarina Sehm Patomäki and Marko Ulvila (eds)

How are the political parties responding to the new challenges posed by globalisation and new regimes of global governance? Is there a need for global political parties, or would such a development lead to further deterioration of democracy?

These are some of the questions addressed in the dialogue project by the Network Institute for Global Democratization (NIGD). In order to intensify the debate on the role of political parties in global affairs from a democratic perspective, international dialogues were organised in Helsinki, New Delhi, Bamako, and Caracas. A set of articles were provided as background papers to the meetings. These papers along with contributions from the dialogues and elsewhere form the content of this NIGD Working Paper.

The writers in this volume include Samir Amin, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Stephen Gill, Heikki Patomäki, Vijay Pratap, Ellen Reese, Jan Aart Scholte, Teivo Teivainen, and Thomas Wallgren. The editors Katarina Sehm-Patomäki and Marko Ulvila are NIGD associates based in Finland.

A book based on this manuscript is scheduled for publication with Zed Books in August 2007.

Global Democracy Initiatives: The Art of Possible

NIGD Working Paper 2/2002

Heikki Patomäki, Teivo Teivainen and Mika Rönkkö

This report examines major global democracy initiatives and develops a strategy of global democratisation. The first part scrutinises the transformative possibilities of the existing institutional arrangements, particularly the UN system; the Bretton Woods institutions; the WTO; and the international courts. Because of the hegemony of the US and neoliberalism, immediate democratic reforms of the constitutions of these organisations are unlikely. However, a short- to medium-term strategy based on various components is politically possible and feasible, even if fragile and contingent. The components suggested in this report include finding alternative funding to the UN; drastic debt relief and restructuring in order to make countries more independent vis-à-vis the Bretton Woods institutions; and a fight for exit options and clausuls in the WTO. These aims have to be coupled with a quest for transparency and full effective participation in the decision-making process by all states and global civil society actors. The second part discusses the potential of creating new institutional arrangements. These initiatives include a North-South truth commission; a world parliament; empowering global civil society; a debt arbitration mechanism; and global tax organisations. While the first two are easily either only symbolic or, if given real powers, may be ambiguous, the latter three look promising. It is easy to support the spontaneous self-organisation of global civil society, as exemplified by the World Social Forum process. An appropriate debt arbitration mechanism could also help to lessen dependence on the IMF. Simultaneously, global tax organisations could provide funds for global common goods - for example financing development and for the strategy of democratising existing organisations - and provide a model for a more democratic era of global governance. The currency transactions tax would also relieve the structural power of global finance, which is now a central impediment to democratic will-formation in a number of contexts. The third part concludes the report by comparing institutionally conservative and transformative proposals and their relative merits. Although a well-designed strategy of global democratisation has to focus on particular areas and exclude some possibilities, it is important to see the links and connections between different reforms. Reforms should reinforce each other and, moreover, by changing the world historical context, create opportunities for further reforms.

From a Global Market Place to Political spaces

NIGD Working Paper 1/2002

Leena Rikkilä and Katarina Sehm Patomäki (eds)

Five expert reports from the Global South Discuss five important initiatives for global democracy that emerged in our workshop held in June 2001 in Helsinki. The initiatives evalued here are UN reform, BWI reform, global taxation and redistribution, strengthening the World Social Forum and the set up of a North-South truth Commission.

The evaluators unanimously prioritise the strengthening of the World Social Forum-process. The WSF is seen as an international platform for exchanging information, networking and creating a true global civil society. From this platform, new initiatives for global democracy may arise. A North-South truth commission is seen as a means to provide common ground for North-South cooperation. Global taxation is a potential source of revenue for global goods; given that the redistribution is democratically determined. However, the evaluators argue that the UN system and in particular the Bretton Woods-insitutions are next to impossible to democratize.

Contributors are Samir Amin, Cândido Grzybowski, Vijay Pratap, Ritu Priya, Jai Sen, D.L.Sheth, and Virginia Vargas.

Democratising Globalisation: The Leverage of the Tobin Tax (2001)
Heikki Patomäki

HPatomaki_leaflet.pdf

In 1972 Professor James Tobin proposed a tax on international currency transaction that would make most speculative movement of funds unprofitable and the world financial system less volatile.

This book makes an up-to-date case for implementing the Tobin tax. The author argues that the power of the global financial markets to undermine economic policies, production and employment has grown rapidly, while also transferring accountability away from national legislatures. The Tobin tax would help control global finance, bolster the autonomy of states, and shift globalisation towards more democratic control, social responsibility and justice. On a practical level, Dr Patomaki argues that its implementation could start with a group of countries. This would make it possible to proceed without the consent of every state, while not compromising the eventual aim of a universal and uniform tax.
Zed Books
ISBM Hb 1-85649-870-0 Pb 1-85649-871-9

Democracy and Globalization: Promoting a North-South Dialogue (2002)
Leena Rikkilä and Katarina Sehm-Patomäki (eds)

The globalization process has overturned traditional ways of thinking. Geographical distance loses importance and your address has nothing to do with the street you live in. This book has gathered together many different aspects of globalization. It is clear that while globalization has benefited sme, it has hurt many. Something needs to be done about the way globalization is taking shape - but what, how and by whom? When something moves with immense and uncontrollable speed, the boundries need to be set up quickly.
In this book, where the voices of the South outnumber those of the North we have tried to identify practical, perhaps even radical, proposals for further action to guide the globalization prcess. This book is designed for anyone who is interested inglobalization and democratization, what the processes mean and how they are perceived in different parts of the world. We hope to provide new insights as well as inspiration for further work on these important issues.

This book contains contributions from a former President of Finland, a former Prime Minister of India, three Ministers from the Government of Finland, as well as from representatives of civil society and the academia.

Political Initiatives to Democratize Globalization (2001)
Leena Rikkilä and Katarina Sehm Patomäki (eds)

A Workshop on North-South Dialogue on Democracy and Globalization

"Let a hundred black African companies from South Africa come to Helsinki and own all the buildings, banks, insurance

companies, major manufacturing enterprises including Nokia, and nearby farms and forests. Let the government be in the hands of the Finns (of course), a government that is periodically elected to office by a "democratic" system that is acceptable to the African investors. Let the Finnish population comprise of a majority (and that means about 95% of them) that is impoverished for lack of resources and jobs and gradually dying of AIDS and malaria. Then, ask the government to open up the economy to further African investment from South Africa to come and own or control the remaining land, water, forests that may still be in the hands of the Finns, and generally "develop" the Finnish economy. And then ask the Finnish government to be honest, transparent, non-corrupt and democratic. If this were a possible experiment, it would be a good test of the validity of propositions that link good governance with development."

This hypothetical example is striking. Globalization cannot be a one-way street leading to a dead end, with return as the only exit. The question is: how do we create roundabouts that enable the traffic to flow, according to mutually agreed and revisable rules, between the North and the South, and from the East to the West?

This workshop invites to a North-South dialogue on democracy in and of the globalization process. The workshop strives to identify practical alternatives. Should we reform existing institutions or do we need new structures? How do we proceed?

NIGD Working Paper 1/2001
ISBN 1-84233-059-4

Politics of Civil Society: A Global Perspective on Democratization

Heikki Patomäki (ed)

In the wake of the third wave of democratization, civil society has become a catchword repeated in numerous official speeches and documents. This book challenges many of the standard Western assumptions about civil society and its role in democratisation.

Politics of Civil Society argues for a comparative and global perspective of understanding how civil societies develop; for grasping the connections between these developments; and for understanding the implications of globalisation. The book asks: what is positive about civil society, including the so called "global civil society"? In what sense is civil society conducive to democratisation in different parts of the world? What are the positive possibilities? What are limits, setbacks and problems?

The context for all discussions is globalisation. Given the time/space compression, what are the links between various episodes, tendencies and developments in different parts of the world? To what extent are also relevant power relations globalising? To what extent is democracy following suit? Is it possible to see movements towards trans- and supranational democracy; and attempts to transnationalise political civic actions?

Politics of Civil Society concludes with an assessment of global democratisation. There are a number of tendencies and social forces that are causally efficacious all over the globe. Liberal-democratisation of states is coupled with a widespread tendency towards depoliticisation of issues and delimitation of the area of democratic self-determination. In the context of unequal economic developments and rapidly growing global disparities, with the emergence of new interdependencies, this has led not only to extensive apathy and indifference but also to attempts to relocate democratic politics. In many of the consequent struggles, cosmopolitan democracy has come into sight as a vision for a not-so-distant future.
NIGD Working Paper 2 (2000)

Critical Responses to Globalisation in the Mercosur Region.
Emergent Possibilities for Democratic Politics? (2000)
Heikki Patomäki & Teivo Teivainen

Thus far, the most articulate political theoretical response to the process of globalisation is the theory of cosmopolitan democracy: given our democratic ideals and aspirations, globalisation requires us to rethink the political community within which these ideals and aspirations can be realised.

The problem of many models of cosmopolitan democracy, such as David Held’s, is that they are partially detached from the real world historical processes. In this paper, we take a step towards correcting this bias. In the Mercosur region of Latin America, neoliberal globalisation has led and will lead to a variety of critical political responses, some of which carry the seeds of cosmopolitan democracy. A dialectical development of political consciousness seems to have occurred in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. This development tackles directly the real conditions of people’s lives.

After defining our basic concepts — globalisation, democracy and civic public spaces — we develop a categorisation of different trans- and supranational responses to globalisation. Our empirical research indicates the need to redefine the conceptual basis for cosmopolitan democracy. For the actors in the Mercosur region, the most pressing priorities have to do with tackling the problems caused by financial globalisation and the repressive governance of the globalising economy. However, instead of legalist blueprints, there is a quest for more imaginative and context-sensitive (radical) reforms.
NIGD Working Paper 1 (2000)

Tobinin veron toteutus
(The realisation of the Tobin tax)
Heikki Patomäki

The Finnish version (ISBN 951-578-708-4) is available from LIKE, Helsinki, at address: Vuorikatu 5, 00100 Helsinki, Finland phone: +358-9-260 0288, fax: +358-9-1351372 e mail: like@likekustannus.fi

The Tobin tax: How to Make it Real (1999)
Heikki Patomäki with Katarina Sehm Patomäki and the Advisory Board

In the 1970's James Tobin proposed a low rate tax on financial transactions of currencies. This tax would make many speculative movements unprofitable and the financial system less volatile and sensitive to daily political news and anticipation of economic policy changes. Consequently, it would create space for more autonomous economic policies of states.

This Report develops a new approach to making the Tobin tax real. The major problem has always been the lack of realistic political possibilities. Tobin and his followers have assumed that all major financial centres and most other states would have to consent with the idea before it is workable. We argue that this is not the case. Hence, it is proposed that the Tobin tax could be realised in two phases (l) In its first phase, the system would consist of the euro-EU and a group of other countries, or, alternatively, a bigger group of other countries without the EU. However constituted, this grouping should establish an open agreement - any state can join at any time - and a supranational body orchestrating the tax and collecting the revenues of a small underlying transactions tax (10 basis points, at most); much bigger exchange surcharge (2%-3% or even more); and a relatively high tax, perhaps 2%, on domestic-currency lending to non-residents (only to non- residents who are not yet within the tax regime). This arrangement would solve the tax evasion problem and is economically sound.

(2) In the second phase, which should be carried out either when all major financial centres and most other countries have joined the first phase system a universal and uniform Tobin tax at a higher - yet absolutely low- 1% rate would be applied.

This arrangement is politically more realistic than any previous proposal. It would make it possible for a(ny) grouping of countries to proceed quickly without the consent of every state (including such financial centres as London/UK or New York/US), yet it would not compromise the aim of a universal and uniform tax. However, it is devised in such a manner that it would build up pressure for the outsiders to join in.

In the fifth chapter, we develop the idea of the Tobin tax organisation (TTO) and its relation to political principles of sovereignty, democracy and justice further. We argue that the Tobin tax regime should be seen as defending some aspects of state sovereignty, yet it also opens up new global political problems of governance.

The organisation that implements and supervises the Tobin tax must be empowered with surveillance capabilities and sanctions. Moreover, in itself, the tax constitutes a form of social control and regulation. The potentially huge revenues - in the second phase, possibly more than USDl trillion a year - it creates can be used for economic and social purposes that must be determined globally. It there by revives also the problems of justice and democracy in a new, global context. We argue for an interim TTO that recognises the validity of the norms and ideals of democracy not by excluding non-democratic states but by giving some powers to a democratically representative and participatory body.

As far as the allocation of revenues is concerned, we make only two modest proposals (besides arguing that the collecting states should get a fair share of the revenues themselves, perhaps a third). The first proposal is to dedicate a relatively small part of the revenues to the UN system. This should give leverage to democratic reforms and prepare for, in the second phase, a more autonomous and democratic UN to take over the TTO (while perhaps leaving the headquarters and some parts of the structure and functions of the TTO intact). Also, it might be desirable to allocate some money for a global political campaign for the Tobin tax.

The second proposal is that it is absolutely crucial that all decisions about revenues will follow public, transparent, fair and democratic procedures, and that the decision-makers are strictly accountable for their actions both to the member-states and the wider, democratic world republic. Only this will guarantee legitimacy of the decisions of the TTO, and later, possibly, the Economic Security Council of the UN.
UPI Working Paper Series No 13 (1999)

Western Models and the Russian Idea: Beyond Inside/Outside in the Discourses on Civil Society
Heikki Patomäki & Christer Pursiainen

This paper argues that despite the state-centrism of the Russian debates, it is possible to partially overcome the usual dichotomies of universalism/particularism and inside/outside also in this context. Consequently, it is also possible to make an argument, from the "outside" (i.e. by non-citizens of Russia), to the effect of overcoming the traditional juxtapositions of Russian debates. The participatory models of democracy offer a more plausible and sustainable view of civil society for both zapadniks and Eurasianists. Moreover, the Eurasianist call for global pluralism can be better addressed by means of theories of cosmopolitan democracy than by Panarin’s gloomy vision of a clash of civilisations.

The second part of the paper studies the nature and transnational origins of Russian civil society by empirical means. It concludes with a new ethico-political vision on promoting democratization.
UPI Working Paper 4 (1998)

Democracy, Economy and Civil Society in Transition
Reino Hjerppe, Tapio Kanninen, Heikki Patomäki & Katarina Sehm (eds)

The global movement of democratization reached the Eastern European states and the Soviet Union in 1989-91, but after the first phase of enthusiasm there have been setbacks and also novel authoritarian tendencies have emerged. The Imatra-Svetogorsk seminar, held on the border of the EU and Russia, discussed the problems of democratization both generally and by concentrating on the cases of Russia and the Baltic states. The results of this follow-up seminar to the UN Secretary-General’s reports on democraization not only support UN activities in the field but also highlight problems and prospectsfrom a number of fresh perspectives. Democracy, Economy and Civil Society in Transition sheds light on the developments in Russia and the Baltic states by arguing, among other things, that the Soviet legacy, cultural differences and economic severities condition democratization in a complex way. In addition, this book displayed some of the existing activities in the field and prepared the ground for institutionalizing the Finnish follow-up process to the UN democratization reports.
UPI and Stakes, Helsinki, 1997, ISBN 951-769-064-9

Democratization- Interaction of Social, Economic and Political Determents in Promoting and Consolidating New or Restored Democracies in the CIS-countries and Eastern Europe (1996)
Katarina Sehm (ed)

The National Ressarch and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (Stakes) in Helsinki, Finland, arranged a first follow-up seminar to the then recently published first UN Secretary-General’s report on democratization. The seminar, which gathered leading international experts in the field, focussed mainly on Eastern Europe and the CIS-countries. The purpose of this first international follow-up seminar was to discuss the interaction of social, economic and political factors in promoting democratization and considering international aid. This report presents the result of the seminar and prepared ground for the follow-up process.
Stakes, Helsinki, 1996