Worldwide there is a growing perception among intellectuals, politicians and citizens, that current global problems and conflicts cannot be solved by national governments, even not by the most powerful ones. It is also more and more observable that the current multilateral institutions (UN, World Bank, IMF, WTO, etc.), created in the aftermath of the Second World War to administrate political stability and economic prosperity, can no longer deliver in today’s fully informed, much more democratic and highly interconnected world.

Moreover, the pervasive promotion of national democracies across the world—as currently “pursued” by the West—to solve problems of a collective nature (global public goods and global externalities) is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition. Indeed, developments in the last decade have proven that at global level, and in crucial areas such as peace and common security, global environment, etc., a UN led by self-appointed “nationally democratic” arbitrators, cannot deliver. In fact, in such circumstances and following the principle of self-interest, even nationally democratic countries have often behaved as free-riders in global economic issues, while the most powerful, in absence of balanced political costs, have tended to abuse the others. In addition, dominant neo-conservative policies in the last two decades have mostly resulted in worse national and international income distribution, increased the number of conflicts and tensions across the world, and been incapable of dealing with common-global problems such as climate change.

Against the above global political background, the authors, after carefully analysing the foundations of democracy at national and global levels, the conditions for sustainability of democracy, and its interconnections with capitalism—be this national or global—propose a complete redesign of the UN system and its economic agencies on a democratic basis. According to the authors, this will finally result in a global democracy for exclusively dealing with global public goods and externalities. A priority target of this reorganisation will be a more balanced and acceptable global distribution of income, as a necessary condition for the survival of global capitalism.

The authors, after carefully analysing the foundations of democracy at national and global levels, the conditions for sustainability of democracy, and its interconnections with capitalism—be this national or global—propose a complete redesign of the UN system and its economic agencies...

Jose Miguel Andreu is Professor of Economics at the University of Sevilla (Spain) and currently works at the UNED (Open University of Spain). He has also taught Economics at the University of the Basque Country and at the University of Alcalá de Henares. For more than 30 years he has lectured on introduction to economics, intermediate and superior macroeconomics, theory of economic growth, money and banking etc. In addition, he has published several textbooks for students as well as reports for governments and written more than a hundred articles on Spanish and international economic matters. For two years (1981-82) he was economic advisor to the Prime Minister of Spain. From 2000 to 2003, he served as a diplomat to India, heading the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain. A forthcoming publication (2009) of Jose Miguel Andreu deals with the theory and politics of economic globalisation.

Rita Dulci Rahman has more than 30 years of experience in international economics and politics. She has intensively worked in the fields of development cooperation, trade and investment, migration, conflict resolution, good governance and global environment, and was committee-member or chair in several European and Dutch governmental and non-governmental bodies. Born in the Dutch Antilles, she currently works as a diplomat for the Netherlands Government. She is Master in Development Studies at the University of Leiden (Netherlands) and Bachelor in Mathematics, University of Surinam. She has published many articles on international economic and political relations and two novels.

Together, Rita Dulci Rahman and Jose Miguel Andreu have published several books on global economic and political matters. Among them, “China and India: Towards Global Economic Supremacy?”(2006), “Overcoming the EU Crisis” (2005), “Responsible Global Governance” (2004) and “Financing Economic Development and Human Security” (2002).