"As politics which remains confined to a national dimension is suffocated by the power of global capitalism, the motivations for democratic participation are reduced," said former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema at the third International Forum on Democracy: The Shared Human Values held in Beijing on March 20. "It's happening in so much of the Western countries, and phenomena of populism and irrationality spread, leading to political instability and the decay of the ruling classes," he added.