Radical democracy and evolution of democratic practice in social movements and transnational activism

This chapter examines post-Global Financial Crisis social mobilisation and the significance of anti-austerity resistance to social democracy. It argues that social life under a complex, spatially diffuse and globally networked capitalism requires a radical democratic politics that goes beyond class. Drawing on post-Marxist theory, particularly Laclau and Mouffe's radical democracy, it contends that social movements, rather than class alone, are central agents of democratic change. The chapter examines how ‘New Social Movements’ since the 1960s challenged the primacy of class and outlines the characteristics of European anti-austerity mobilisations since 2008. It proposes that new forms of social democracy must be grounded in the kinds of activism and social resistance that engage the diverse political, social, economic and environmental challenges of 21st-century capitalism.