Review
We live in a world of overlapping communities. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the post-Second World War global order and power structure are more or less still intact. But moving forward, we need a new framework in order to live peacefully together in a globalised world and to face major global challenges such as international terrorism, the decline of the global financial system and climate change. These challenges are beyond the ability of a single nation-state to address. And the growing speed of globalisation and the growing intensity of international trade force people to move to faraway places and to stay away from their families if they want to get a job and earn a living. The consequences of mobility remain a bit underdeveloped but what we learn is that we need to become cosmopolitan.
In his latest book, British political theorist and former London School of Economics professor David Held, now at Durham University, offers ideals and realities of cosmopolitanism. Held’s cosmopolitan approach to global politics includes eight universal principles introduced in one of his previous works (Held 2004), most prominently equal worth and dignity, collective decision-making through voting procedures, inclusiveness and sustainability. The first mentioned refers to personal values and responsibility alone. Held argues that no woman of any race or religion in the world wants to be treated without respect and to suffer from serious harm. The second and the third refer to the relationship between private and public action. Decision-making is only legitimate if people can express themselves freely. Finally, sustainability expresses the fact that we and future generations want to live in a world in which we continue to have the ability to decide on our own. It would be a pity if our current appetite for destruction didn’t allow future generations to discuss a just global order. These principles form the moral foundation of a cosmopolitan order. For Held, the vision of the future should be neither a plea for today’s neoliberal global order nor a declaration of an anti-globalist manifesto. His social democratic agenda outlined here stands in opposition to the market-based Washington Consensus coined in 1989 by economist John Williamson.
This is a complex but readable and comprehensive book about the global governance of security, finance, and the environment on the way to a just and multipolar order. The problems of the current global system are manifold and not only due to economic failure or market restrictions. One example is global mobility and migration due to climate change, as seen by droughts and starvation in Africa, which could lead to climate refugees and climate wars (Dyer 2008; Welzer 2012). In Held’s view, to get rid of economism, we have to rethink democracy and citizenship on many different levels. For instance, on the local level we have to promote democracy movements, enhance political regionalisation and care for a more or less equal distribution of goods. On the global level, by contrast, we need to establish a system of energy taxation. This could also make it easier for poor people to attain a higher position. Moreover, it would facilitate upward vertical social mobility if people of lower status were in possession of a necessary minimum of basic resources. This necessitates the establishment of local and global institutions which allow discourse beyond the realpolitik of the nation-state.
But, to remain basically liberal in a political philosopher’s sense, Held does not specify his conception of the good life. And that’s a convincing point because this should not be a Western version of cosmopolitanism. A liberal society must be open for a wide diversity of cultural and ethnic differences and should not be restricted to the American or the European way of life. According to a social democratic version of liberalism pointed out here, people with different ideals reason about common issues (Ackerman 1994). Held notes that ‘this is not a political project that starts from nowhere. It is, in fact, deeply rooted in the political world shaped and formed after the Holocaust, Stalinism, fascism and the Second World War’ (240).
To outline a cosmopolitan order one has to refer to universal presuppositions and address existing institutional deficits. Held redefines the concept from the ground up, starting with meta-principles and key elements of humanity. Egalitarian individualism, reciprocal recognition and impartial treatment are the three basic generalisable principles. This means that wherever people live, either by choice or due to social and environmental circumstances, they have to be judged by minimum common legal standards. Held uses the phrase ‘overlapping communities of fate’ to stress the fact that birthplace and community have an accidental aspect. This reminds the careful reader of John Rawls’ ‘veil of ignorance’, where people are tasked with creating a system of justice in which they don’t know their ‘original position’ – that is, what position they will be born into (Rawls 1971). Consequently, to treat people fairly, to allow full participation in public life and to guarantee that everyone’s urgent and secondary needs are met should no longer depend on the membership in a certain nation-state, but on belonging to the human race.
In theory, this argument works very well, but in practice most people are bound to the local and the national. Held’s argument is sound, but I doubt the world is ready for it yet. Especially in Asia and Africa, languages and identities are so diverse that it could be difficult to find common ground for a cosmopolitan order. In some regions there is no communication between ethnic groups. And as some linguists argue, not even a common language in one nation-state, especially in post-colonial Africa, is a guarantee for political and economic stability (Simpson 2007, 2008).
But Held doesn’t only criticize realities. He sometimes highlights the well-being and prosperity of institutions. For instance, he counts the EU despite all its limitations as a success story growing from a small community of purpose to an economically, socially and culturally powerful union of 27 countries: ‘The EU, in remarkably little time, has taken Europe from the disarray of the post-Second World War era to a world in which sovereignty is pooled across a growing number of areas of common concern’ (113). And sometimes he sees new voices in transnational activities and conferences such as the Rio Conference on the Environment in 1992 or the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995.
But how could we overcome the weaknesses of our existing order, the growing difference between the rich and the poor, unemployment, global infectious diseases, water deficits and countless other problems? Held describes a Social Democratic Agenda that he argues should replace the Washington Consensus. The policies on the national and the global level must be in accordance with the eight principles mentioned earlier. This requires three phases of transformation. The first one deals with the promotion of basic economic, social and environmental standards fixed by the UN. Companies should be engaged to comply with these basic standards. The second phase should lead to a new international treaty to adopt binding regulation on these standards. An international court might fine actors who fail to the meet the required standards. The last stage necessitates the development of a public sector, investment in education and health care.
Although Held is big on ideas, he remains vague when it comes to precise measures and targets. For instance, Held advocates proposals for a Tobin tax on financial transactions, first to create regulated and stable financial markets and second to raise money for developing countries. The health care system might include local fora and networks of people in a community providing mobility assistance to those in need (Castells 2010: Preface). To enhance the chance of inclusive participation and active agency, power has to be diverted and decentralized: ‘If decision-making is decentralized as much as possible, it maximizes each person’s opportunity to influence the social conditions that shape his or her life’ (Held 2010: 175-6).
Cosmopolitanism. Ideals and Realities is a persuasive revelation to anyone who wants to know more about the strengths and weaknesses of our current global order and how to make it better in the future. This future is not a faraway utopia, but will require major changes. Still, the continuing financial crisis and the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima have shown that the governments of the strongest countries are politically divided as never before. Concerning energy markets, renewable energy and global market regulation, a common position is out of sight. And the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in 2010 and the euro as acute endangered currency are symbols of the unwillingness and inability of the powerful statesmen to act. Current efforts run in the opposite direction. Sometimes we can observe a relapse into nationalism and a withdrawal from international organisations. Today, social democratic cosmopolitanism seems far away from being feasible but there is a chance if we try. So let’s turn to the political practitioners and to all people in the world and tell them to read this book!
References:
Ackerman, B. (1994), Political liberalism, The Journal of Philosophy 91 (7) (July), pp. 364-386.
Castells, M. (2010), The rise of the network society, Second edition with a new preface, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.
Dyer, G. (2008), Climate wars, Random House Canada, Toronto.
Held, D. (2004), Global covenant. The Social Democratic alternative to the Washington Consensus, Polity Press, Cambridge/Malden.
Rawls, J. (1971), A theory of justice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Simpson, Andrew Alexander (Ed.) (2007), Language and national identity in Asia, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Simpson, A. A. (Ed.) (2008), Language and national identity in Africa, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Welzer, H. (2012), Climate wars. What people will be killed for in the 21st century, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.
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