The 2011 Warwick RIPE Debate: 'Rethinking World Politics'.

The 2011 debate was held on 8th March and features Professor Philip Cerny, Emeritus Professor of Politics and Global Affairs at the University of Manchester and Rutgers University, and Professor Jan Aart Scholte of the University of Warwick. Acting as Chair is Professor Richard Higgott, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Warwick. We were especially pleased to host Prof. Cerny present at the debate given his election as Distinguished Senior Scholar for 2011 by the International Political Economy Section of the International Studies Association.

Prof. Cerny gives a wide-ranging talk on the longue durée of world politics, discussing the formation of the nation-state and its contingent (and ongoing) transformation under conditions of globalisation. Central to his enquiry is what he terms the 'neo-pluralism' fostered by transnational actors, who are increasingly bringing to bear a raison du Monde on the organisation of the multi-level political system. In his response to the talk, and drawing on his own ongoing project on 'Building Global Democracy', Prof. Scholte provides a number of talking points. These include the extent to which a neo-pluralist structure permits agency for particular marginalised and disenfranchised groups, and how (Western) scholars might adopt a more kaleidoscopic perspective on the over-arching political order.