The realities of globalisation, multiple identities and crises of legitimacy put democracy above and below the nation-state on the political agenda, says John Palmer.

The argument for supranational European governance strikes at the root of democracy, says Roger Scruton.

The suggestion that democracy must remain restricted to nation-states - because they alone can sustain a popular demos essential to underpin any democratic politics - is a counsel of despair, says John Palmer. An increasingly interdependent world with powerful transnational institutions must build transnational democracy, and what is being attempted through the European Union may have eventual application at the global level.

Iraq had a vibrant civil society and rich layers of secular political argument in the pre-Saddam era. These key ingredients must be reclaimed if democracy is to take root in the middle east, says Sami Zubaida.

A contract of trust between citizens and politicians on a defined national community – we can elect you, we can remove you – is fundamental to a democracy, says the German-born British Labour MP Gisela Stuart.

Anthony Barnett & Isabel Hilton’s depiction of democracy is too indulgent of the Islamist threat and too in thrall to leftwing pieties to be convincing, says Thomas Cushman.

An enormous effort to revivify democracy across the world is needed – and the inspiration to pursue it can be found in centuries-long experience of cross-cultural encounters, says Fred Dallmayr.

A detailed examination of Islamic thinking and practice shows that the alleged conflict between Islam and democracy is an illusion, says Mishal Al Sulami.

“We must keep firmly in mind that democracies can fail.” The barriers to democratic progress in the world today are far deeper than Anthony Barnett & Isabel Hilton allow, while Roger Scruton’s depiction of “the west and the rest” is equally flawed, argues Anatol Lieven.

The very potency of democracy as word and idea creates an impulse to extend it beyond plausible limits, and this is at the root of the flaws in Anthony Barnett & Isabel Hilton’s article. John Dunn, professor of political theory at the University of Cambridge, continues openDemocracy’s debate.

In its silence about Islam and its hostility to the United States, Anthony Barnett & Isabel Hilton’s definition of the threats to democracy fails to convince Roger Scruton.

Terrorism, fundamentalism, and neo-liberal globalisation each pose a challenge to democracy. openDemocracy intends to play a key role defending and deepening democracy, explain Anthony Barnett and Isabel Hilton.