Imperial powers and democratic imaginations

The analytical nucleus of this paper is formed through a consideration of some primary aspects of the interconnections between a resurgent imperialism and a contested terrain of democratic politics. There are three sections: in the first part an exploratory examination of significant elements of the contemporary literature on imperialism is developed. This includes a discussion of the relationality of imperial power, the differentiation of imperiality from imperialism and the neglected importance of the agents of imperialist power. The second section attempts to tease out some of the specificities of the USA as an imperial democracy set within a broad context of North – South relations. This leads into a final discussion of the geopolitics of democratisation. The paper is an exploratory treatment of certain features of an extensive conceptual and political terrain formed by the intersections between imperialism and democratic politics.