Democracy today is challenged, radically, deeply, fatefully. Born and cultivated in the ancient world as the face-to-face participatory township, and successfully re-imagined in the early modern world as the representative nation-state, it must now adapt to a global, networked, interdependent world. Or likely perish. To survive actually, it must find ways to establish itself virtually. To preserve its local vitality, it must achieve a global compass. Society‘s naturally expanding scale is forever outdistancing democracy‘s naturally limited compass. That was the issue confronted by ancient direct democracy, above all in Athens and Rome; and it remains the issue confronting those who today aspire to fashion a new age of global democracy.

Pay matters. How much you earn can determine your lifestyle, where you can afford to live, and your aspirations and status. But to what extent does what we get paid confer ‘worth’? Beyond a narrow notion of productivity, what impact does our work have on the rest of society, and do the financial rewards we receive correspond to this? Do those that get more contribute more to society? With controversial bonuses being paid out in bailed-out banks, the authors believe that it is time to ask challenging questions such as these. In this report to the New Economics Foundation (NEF), they calculate the value to society of a number of different jobs and advocate a fundamental rethink of how the value of work is recognized and rewarded.
They use some of the principles and valuation techniques of Social Return on Investment analysis to quantify the social, environmental and economic value that different roles produce—or in some cases undermine.

Abstract global theories are built upon the assumption that the creation of a world community is reducible to a simple choice between the existing international arrangements and an ideal universal order held together in some predetermined structure. The inhuman quality of such speculation is revealed by the way that they terminate in imperatives addressed to the will. They leave no room for any further concrete reflection on the essentials of a good common life. They fail to see that the future good of the world will depend upon a more concrete understanding of the power and range of human reason. By concentrating upon the immanent development of consciousness, pure thought assumes that nothing further is to be discovered because all has already been conceived. Thus it misses the meanings which can be discovered outside the self within the working of experience. The author of this book, Cornelius F. Murphy, Jr., professor of international law, explores how theorists have reflected upon the necessary components of an effective global order.
(This article is also available in Chinese.)