The problems of legitimation and potential conflicts in a world political community

Abstract

There are good security and political economy reasons for furthering integration towards a world political community (WPC), possibly assuming the form of a world state. However, would these reasons provide a legitimate and sustainable basis for the WPC? It is argued in this article that, while the standard security-military and functionalist political economy arguments for world unification may work to a certain point, they are insufficient and may become counterproductive. Especially if perceived in terms of rationally calculative orientation of action, they are not enough and may even work against the WPC. There must also be a belief in normative legitimacy, which may be anchored in universal principles such as popular democracy and human rights. In this light, theories of civilizing process and stages of ethico-political learning are explored. Collective human learning not only explains the quest for democratization but also points towards cosmopolitan ethico-political sentiments. However, there is an internal relationship between democracy and identity, and identities tend to be particular. The case is made, first, for thinking that the otherness of one’s narrated ‘self’ can be located either in the past or, alternatively, in our contemporary being, when seen from a point of view of a possible future position in world history. Second, within a higher level identity-in-difference, a co-constitutive and mutually transformative relation between self and others can involve letting many differences just be.