Humanity at Risk compares diverse approaches to the theme of global threats using the tools of philosophy, critical theory, and political thought alongside more practical, socio-political observations. By defining the idea of "global risk" more specifically, Editors Innerarity and Solana, and their contributors, believe we can understand how these risks should be evaluated, predicted, and managed within the framework of democratic societies.The goal of this book is to highlight more precisely the necessity, in the face of new global risks, for new governance at a national, European, and global level.

In the 1970s political and economic changes to the world order led to an emerging "globalization" credited with the ceding of state sovereignty to a "de facto world government" of transnational corporations and with the anti-globalism movement directed at countering it. Mexico, however, has maintained the salience of the national unit in the form of the state as a ruling apparatus and as the target of organized, non-state, political opposition. This study examines the transformation of Mexico's social and political organization from state corporatism to transnationalized corporatism, a form distinguished by the effect that International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organization have on the state's relationship to the rest of society. By exploring how non-governmental organizations, political parties, unions and social movements (notably the Zapatistas) engage with the state under neoliberalism, this work significantly emphasizes the continued relevance of corporatist structures in an environment of electoral democratic reform.

Violence, war and internal conflicts have assumed a new intensity with the decline of the Cold War. There are over 32 civil wars going on today. Our world may well witness over 100 million refugees in the year 2000 as a direct result of internal wars. This volume consists of case studies and theory-oriented papers dealing with Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Middle East. Taken together, they spell out implications of wide general interest, providing a comparative basis for a systematic approach to conflict transformation.

More than thirty years have passed since Latin America began the arduous task of transitioning from military-led rule to democracy. In this time, more countries have moved toward the institutional bases of democracy than at any time in the region’s history. Nearly all countries have held free, competitive elections and most have had peaceful alternations in power between opposing political forces. Despite these advances, however, Latin American countries continue to face serious domestic and international challenges to the consolidation of stable democratic governance. The challenges range from weak political institutions, corruption, legacies of militarism, transnational crime, and globalization among others. In the second edition of Latin American Democracy contributors – both academics and practitioners, North Americans, Latin Americans, and Spaniards—explore and assess the state of democratic consolidation in Latin America by focusing on the specific issues and challenges confronting democratic governance in the region. This thoroughly updated revision provides new chapters on: the environment, decentralization, the economy, indigenous groups, and the role of China in the region.