The role of law, networks and civil society are examined and key theoretical and meta-theoretical questions on how to analyse and theorise the global polity, what drives it forward, and whether it can be democratised are discussed.

Morten Ougaard is a Reader in International Political Economy at Copenhagen Business School. His research interests include international political economy, global governance, the international regulation of business and US foreign policy. Richard Higgott is Director of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation and Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His recent publications include two edited volumes, Non State Actors and Authority in the International System and The Political Economy of Globalisation.

Introduction: beyond system and society - towards a global polity? PART I Theorising the global polity 1 Global polity research: characteristics and challenges 2 The global polity and changes in statehood 3 Law in the global polity 4 Societal denationalization and positive governance PART II Non-state actors in the global polity 5 Discursive globalization: transnational discourse communities and New Public Management 6 Knowledge networks and policy expertise in the global polity 7 Civil society and governance in the global polity PART III Prospects and agendas for the global polity in the twenty-first century 8 The historical processes of establishing institutions of global governance and the nature of global polity 9 Europe: regional laboratory for a global polity? 10 From global governance to good governance: theories and prospects of democratizing the global polity