Who are the People of the World?

Abstract

This paper attempts to first examine to what extent there are theoretical loose ends implied in the cosmopolitan aspiration towards a global politics, and seeks to delve into the traditions of political theory and its contemporary reformulations in order to look for some resolution. It argues that even if the ideal of a global people with a single social imaginary is utopian, post-national politics involving multiple and overlapping political identities have already come into view at different scales. It may therefore still be possible for cosmopolitan political visions to develop hegemonic status if what are currently transient post-national collectivities successfully engage with global power more effectively than ever before and thereby constitute a political will of the people of the world.