Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa - Napoli

Wars for rights/Wars against rights?
Globalization and crisis of democracy

International Conference
March 24-27, 2013
Minori - Amalfi Coast (Sa) - Italy

 

After the collapse of the USSR, the old bipolar system was replaced by a growing interdependence of economic and political factors, which are generally managed through a global governance as a tool to correct economic imbalances, to solve local conflicts and protect human rights. In the last decades Western Democracies engaged in several wars with historically peripheral countries changing the power balance on a worldwide scale. These armed interventions were presented to the public opinion as humanitarian actions to promote security and democracy and to protect human rights. At the same time, this process has been followed by a global transformation of the traditional relationships between State and Market, Civil Society and Political Society, Citizenship and Nationality. Furthermore, the dismantling of Welfare State systems, the radical change of labor relations and security policies on migration led to progressive deprivation of social guarantees and rights. All these dynamics were exacerbated by the current global crisis. In such a context, new popular resistances developed in the last years, starting a strong cycle of struggles claiming access to elementary democratic rights. Therefore, we propose to discuss and investigate the relations between the transformation of democracy, inside and outside the West, and human and social rights.