Het universalisme gered. De afweging tussen republikeinse zelfbepaling en kosmopolitische normen

Abstract

Abstract: Reclaiming universalism. Negotiating republican self-determination and cosmopolitan norms. What are the philosophical foundations of international law? And how can the will of democratic majorities be reconciled with norms of cosmopolitan justice? Benhabib’s thesis is that we are entering a phase in the evolution of global civil society that shows a transformation of international to cosmopolitan norms of justice, a transformation taking place in at least three areas: crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, humanitarian interventions and transnational migration. This transformation brings with it a battle and paradox between sovereignty and cosmopolitanism between the necessary limitations clinging to democratic representation and self-determination of a democratic people on the one hand and the norms of cosmopolitan justice on the othe. From the background of discourse ethics, a moral conversation leading to a universal moral standpoint cannot be limited to those residing in a nation-state but must at least potentially be extended to all of humanity. The tension between the universal and the particular is constitutive of democratic legitimacy. 'We the people establishes itself as a democratic body by acting in the name of the "universal". At the same time however, the will of the democratic sovereign can only extend over the territory under its jurisdiction democracies require borders'. In order to reconcile self-determination and cosmopolitan justice Benhabib develops the concepts of 'democratic iterations' (inspired by Jacques Derrida) and of 'jurisgenerative politics'. 'Iteration' refers to the fact that every repetition is a form of variation. 'Democratic iterations' are linguistic, legal, cultural, and political repetitions-in-transformation. 'Jurisgenerative politics' refers to such iterative or destabilizing acts through which a democratic people shows itself to be not only the subject but also the author of law. It signals a space of interpretation and intervention between transcendent norms and the will of democratic majorities. By means of jurisgenerative politics and democratic iteration, a dialogic universalism seeks discursive mediation between ethical particularism and moral universalism. Considering the question to the ontological status of cosmopolitan norms in a post-metaphysical universe, Benhabib argues that such norms create a new order of values and meanings that wasn't there before. No prior ground of justification is available, and we can only know the consequences of these norms once we accept their legitimacy and adopt them. As long as robust global civil society mobilizes to protect the future of cosmopolitan rights, Benhabib remains hopeful that even a regressive administration (read, the Bush administration) will not prevail in its violation of the spirit as well as the letter of cosmopolitanism. Translation: Marieke Borren and Esther de Wit