The World Social Forum and global democratisation: learning from Porto Alegre

Being anti-something can be politically useful, but only up to a point. The search for alternative globalisation projects has been central to the World Social Forum process. The first two forums, held in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in 2001 and 2002, provided a wide variety of approaches towards global democratisation. This article analyses the contradictions and prospects of various approaches towards global democratisation that could be found in the meetings, including the organisational aspects of the World Social Forum itself. It simultaneously argues for the political importance of learning from the innovative experiences in the so-called developing countries, such as the participatory budget planning of the Porto Alegre municipality. Without such learning that transgresses the idea of developed/adult/teacher vs developing/child/pupil, global democratisation cannot advance very far.