Transnational democratization and republican citizenship: Towards critical republicanism

Transnational civil society activism has become increasingly prominent in world politics. However, there are signifi cant questions about how these emerging processes of transnational activism can and should interface with existing forms of global and national governance. This essay contends that republicanism can explain how transnational activism can productively relate to global and national governance. Republicanism is able to develop an approach which draws upon both constitutional and discursive aspects of democracy by developing a greater focus on the roles that citizens can play with respect to both formal state institutions and the deliberative practices with respect to transnational activism. This essay develops a position termed critical republicanism which demonstrates that these transnational forms of activism can be best understood as early stages of an incipient process of transnational democratization and that the virtues of citizens need to be rethought so that citizens are concerned about the changing nature of domination at home and abroad, and be willing to engage with transnational sources of information and activism.