Cosmopolitanism is usually defended on a moral basis. Because of that, it seems to be available only for political moralists. In this paper, we propose a non-moralist foundation for cosmopolitanism rooted in the metapolitical framework provided by political minimalism. This framework articulates a distinction between ethics and politics on the one hand, and between politics and metapolitics on the other. Through this lens, we argue that cosmopolitanism should be understood as a political normative position, rather than an ethical, metaethical, or metapolitical thesis. In addition, political minimalism allows us to provide a novel argument in favour of cosmopolitanism by conceptualizing the global political community in a way that avoids the utopianism often associated with other conceptions of cosmopolitanism, thereby strengthening its overall plausibility.
AlexanderJ (2014) Notes towards a definition of politics. Philosophy89(2): 273–300.
2.
AppiahKA (2006) Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. Allen Lane.
3.
BeitzCR (1975) Justice and international relations. Philosophy & Public Affairs4: 360–389.
4.
BeitzCR (1979) Political Theory and International Relations. Princeton University Press.
5.
BeitzCR (2000) Rawls’s law of peoples. Ethics110: 669–696.
6.
Bermejo-LuqueL (2025) Williams for and against: Politics as a constitutively normative practice. Topoi44: 53–64.
7.
BrownGW (2009) Grounding Cosmopolitanism: From Kant to the Idea of a Cosmopolitan Constitution. Edinburgh University Press.
8.
CabreraL (2004) Political Theory of Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Case for the World State. Routledge.
9.
CabreraL (2005) The cosmopolitan imperative: Global justice through accountable integration. In: BrockGMoellendorfD (eds) Current Debates in Global Justice. Springer, pp.171–199.
10.
CabreraL (2019) The Humble Cosmopolitan: Rights, Diversity, and Trans-State Democracy. OUP.
11.
CiceroMT (2000) On Obligations (De Officiis) (translated by WalshPG). OUP.
CrenshawK (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum1989(1): 139–167.
14.
CrossB (2024) Metaethics as dead politics? On political normativity and justification. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice27(3): 319–335.
15.
FinlaysonL (2017) With radicals like these, who needs conservatives? Doom, gloom, and realism in political theory. European Journal of Political Theory16(3): 264–282.
16.
FreedenM (1996) Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. OUP.
17.
FreedenM (2003) Ideology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
18.
GiugniM (2015) Peace movements. In: WrightJD (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edn. Elsevier, pp.643–647.
19.
KantI (2006) Toward perpetual peace: A philosophical sketch. In: KleingeldP (ed.) Toward Perpetual Peace and Other Writings on Politics, Peace, and History. Yale University Press, pp.67–109.
20.
KleingeldP (2012) Kant and Cosmopolitanism: The Philosophical Idea of World Citizenship. Cambridge University Press.
21.
KleingeldPBrownE (2019) Cosmopolitanism. In: ZaltaEN (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2019 edn. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/ (accessed 22 October 2025).
LeipoldB (2024) Citizen Marx. Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought. Princeton University Press.
24.
MarxCEngelsF (2012) The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition. Verso.
25.
MorgenthauH (1954) Politics Among Nations. Alfred A. Knopf.
26.
MouffeC (2005) On the Political. Routledge.
27.
PettitP (2006) Rawls’ peoples. In: MartinRReidyD (eds) Rawls’ Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?Blackwell, pp.38–55.
28.
PoggeT (1993) Cosmopolitanism. In: GoodinREEttitPPoggePT (eds) A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy. Blackwell, pp.312–331.
29.
PoggeT (1998) A global resources dividend. In: CrockerDLindenT (eds) Ethics of Consumption: The Good Life, Justice, and Global Stewardship. Rowman and Littlefield, pp.501–538.
30.
PoggeT (2006) Do Rawls’s two theories of justice fit together? In: MartinRReidyD (eds) Rawls’ Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?Blackwell, pp.206–225.
31.
PoggeT (2008) World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms. Polity Press.
32.
PoggeTW (1992) Cosmopolitanism and sovereignty. Ethics103: 48–75.
33.
PoggeTW (2001) Eradicating systemic poverty: Brief for a global resources dividend. Journal of Human Development2: 59–77.
34.
PreziosoS (2022) Globalisation, internationalism and the Great war. Labor History63(4): 492–502.
35.
RawlsJ (1971) A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press.
36.
RawlsJ (1999) The Law of Peoples. Harvard University Press.
37.
RitterC (2025) Understanding cosmopolitanism: A morphological approach. Journal of Political Ideologies30(1): 98–117.
38.
Rodríguez-AlcázarJ (2017) Beyond realism and moralism: A defense of political minimalism. Metaphilosophy48: 727–744.
39.
Rodríguez-AlcázarJBermejo-Luque L (2024) Human enhancement technologies and the arguments for cosmopolitanism. Enrahonar72: 15–33.
40.
Rodríguez-AlcázarJBermejo-LuqueLMolina PérezA (2021) Do automated vehicles face moral dilemmas? A plea for a political approach. Philosophy & Technology34: 811–832.
41.
RossiE (2012) Justice, legitimacy and (normative) authority for political realists. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy15: 149–164.
42.
RossiE (2019) Being realistic and demanding the impossible. Constellations26: 638–652.
43.
SangiovanniA (2007) Global justice, reciprocity, and the state. Philosophy & Public Affairs35: 3–39.
44.
SangiovanniA (2008) Justice and the priority of politics to morality. Journal of Political Philosophy16: 137–164.
45.
SangiovanniA (2016) How practices matter. Journal of Political Philosophy24: 3–23.
46.
SingerP (1979) Practical Ethics. Cambridge University Press.
47.
SingerP (2002) One World: The Ethics of Globalization. Yale University Press.
48.
SlaughterA (2004) A New World Order. Princeton University Press.
49.
TännsjöT (2008) Global Democracy: The Case for a World Government. Edinburgh University Press.
WaltzK (1979) Theory of International Politics. McGraw-Hill.
55.
WalzerM (2004) Arguing About War. Yale University Press.
56.
WeissTG (2009) What happened to the idea of World Government. International Studies Quarterly53: 253–271.
57.
WeldonSLLusvardiAKelly-ThompsonK, et al. (2023) Feminist waves, global activism, and gender violence regimes: Genealogy and impact of a global wave. Women’s Studies International Forum99: 102781.
58.
WenarL (2006) Why Rawls is not a cosmopolitan egalitarian. In: MartinRReidyD (eds) Rawls’ Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?Blackwell, pp.95–113.
59.
WendtA (2011) Why a World State is inevitable. In: CabreraL (ed.) Global Governance, Global Government: Institutional Visions for an Evolving World System. SUNY Press, pp.27–64.
60.
WilliamsB (1985) Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Fontana.
61.
WilliamsB (2005) In the Beginning was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument. Princeton University Press.
62.
WilliamsMS (2020) Global solidarity, global worker empowerment, and global strategy in the anti-sweatshop movement. Labor Studies Journal45: 394–420.
