Global citizenship and the national state

The globalization process has weakened national states, which have lost the ir ability to formulate autonomous national policies and guarantee the clas sic principles of state sovereignty. Citizens' rights, traditionally linked to the national state, are threatened by the globalization process. In rec ent decades we have witnessed an extraordinary worldwide growth in organiza tions from civil society, who are faced with the states' reasons and the in terests of transnational corporations in the international sphere. Based on empirical research by the United Nations, the World Bank, and other intern ational agencies, we identify a trend towards the formation of a global civ il society, which has been exerting influence on international decisions, t hus contributing to the democratization of the world's political system.