The Pirate Parties’ Globality
Abstract
In the following, one transnational - and potentially global - phenomenon will be discussed
by asking ‘how do the members of the Pirate Party perceive the Pirate Parties’ globality?’ In
the first part of this paper, the structures surrounding the Pirate Party are described. It will
be argued that the Pirate Party can be regarded as an allegory for globalization.
Furthermore, it is asserted that the Pirate Parties constitute a network. Therefore, the
network shape, as defined by Manuel Castells, will be scrutinized in order to investigate the
appearance of a potentially new global player. Besides that, the Pirate Parties’ emergence
will be embedded into the current geo-political context of the Information Age. In the second
part, a stronger focus rests on the action that should be generated in the future. Here, the
notions of democracy, as defined by the interviewed Pirate Parties members, serve as the
basis for investigation. Liquid Democracy, a blend between representative democracy and
direct democracy, will be explored and additionally compared to its template deliberative
democracy. Furthermore, the obstacles, but also the possibilities of this notion are going to
be debated, and in the end additionally layered on a global scale. Altogether, and as it can be
detected in the setup of this paper, the ontological dispute between structuralism and
constructivism will be an eminent feature of this research, arguing that not a bipolar
opposition between individuals and structures enforces our reality, but the reciprocity
between them.
Degree
Student essay
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2014-08-15Author
Morisse, Monique
Keywords
Pirate Party, Globalization, Network Society, Notions of Democracy, Structural Constraints
Series/Report no.
Global Studies
2012:12
Language
eng