Conclusion: An Assessment of the State of Democracy Given the Challenges of Globalization and Mediatization

Abstract

In this concluding chapter, we shall try to assess the contemporary state of democracy as we know it on the basis of the previous chapters of this volume. We shall do so in three steps. First, we shall discuss the global spread of democracy at the level of the nation-states. Second, we shall discuss the vertical spread of democracy within the emerging multilevel governance structures. Our main focus in this respect will be the EU. Third, we shall try to assess the democratization of established democracies. This section will focus on the experience of Western European democracies in particular. In assessing the state of the art of democratization, we shall try not to succumb to the pessimism that has seized a large number of perspicacious observers of the current state of democracy. Nor shall we fall into the opposite extreme which believes that we live in the best of all worlds. Democracy is progressing worldwide, but it is never guaranteed once and for all. Confronted with new challenges, the process of democratization continues in an open-ended way.