Governing A Global Community Of Shared Risks
This chapter considers interpretations of the globalization process along a continuum ranging from "realist" emphasis upon sovereignty in the inter-state system to "idealist" projections of cosmopolitan citizenship and even global government. The work of Jurgen Habermas is taken to be the most comprehensive via media between the "extreme" positions. In The Postnational Constellation, Habermas relates morality to ethics in explaining the potential for, but also the current limitations upon, cosmopolitan projects. The example of the European Union demonstrates the possibility for politics to "catch up" with globalizing markets.