Looking for evidence of the new politics: globalisation, power and democracy.

McGrath, M.G., 2006. Looking for evidence of the new politics: globalisation, power and democracy. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This thesis takes as it starting point the three crises said to be facing liberal democracy: the crises of globalisation, fundamentalist identities and the decline of democratic legitimacy. When combined with the transformative potential of new communication technologies, these crises form the foundation for the new politics and promise a moment of revolutionary change for Western liberal democracies. This thesis looks at three apparently diverse responses to the new politics from the techno-liberal, social entrepreneur and resister schools and contends that, despite their differences, these schools share a number of core assumptions that cause them to limit the range of valid strategies of responses to the new politics. Their vision of globalisation shares the assumption that it is a novel, irresistible and culturally and politically homogenizing phenomenon. Their conception of power as a one-dimensional resource leads them to cast individuals in relationships of dominance and subjugation. Their loss of faith in liberal democracy encourages them to propose deliberative democratic forms intended to produce rational decisions reached through reasonable debate and delivering greater equality. This thesis seeks to test these assumptions, subjecting them first to critical scrutiny by contextualising them within the wider academic debates on globalisation, power and democratic theory and in each case finding that their claims to represent the only viable responses to the new politics falling short. The second test is built upon the central role these authors give to new communications technologies as tools of propaganda and as exemplars of a new form of social organisation. By comparing output from the traditional and new media this thesis will look for evidence of the three schools predictions of the overwhelming scale and penetration of the new politics in the conduct of a political debate in the context of the 2001 British General Election.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	McGrath, M.G.
Date:	2006
ISBN:	9781369314137
Identifiers:	Number Type PQ10183132 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	25 Sep 2020 10:31
Last Modified:	20 Jul 2023 10:35
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/40924

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