Debating Globalization: Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism as Political Ideologies

Journal of Political Ideologies, 2016

30 Pages Posted: 19 Dec 2019

See all articles by Michael Zürn

Michael Zürn

Freie Universität Berlin; WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Pieter de Wilde

Department of Sociology and Political Science

Date Written: 2016

Abstract

Economic, cultural, and political systems formerly bounded by the borders of nation-states are increasingly globalized. Politicians, civil society and other societal actors engage in publically debating issues related to globalization. Whether conflicts consolidate to form a stable cleavage depends among other factors on the extent to which they become ideologically underpinned. As the basis for such an underpinning, we identify philosophical debates about justice between globalists and statists and between universalists and contextualists as raw material that political entrepreneurs active in the public sphere can draw upon. On this basis, we identify four major bones of contention that could provide the core of such ideological underpinning: the permeability of borders; the allocation of authority between levels; the normative dignity of communities; and the patterns of justification. One ideal typical combination of those four components can be labeled cosmopolitanism – combining arguments from globalists and universalists; another communitarianism, combining statist and contextualist arguments. The more these two ideal types feature as political ideologies in public debate, the more debates about globalization solidify into a new cleavage. We develop a conceptual framework which can subsequently be used in support of empirical research analyzing the ideological foundations of globalization conflicts.

Keywords: Communitarianism, Cosmopolitanism, Globalization, Political Ideology, Political Theory, Public Sphere

Suggested Citation

Zürn, Michael and Zürn, Michael and de Wilde, Pieter, Debating Globalization: Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism as Political Ideologies (2016). Journal of Political Ideologies, 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3497466 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3497466

Michael Zürn

Freie Universität Berlin ( email )

Ihnestraße 22
Berlin, 14195
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/expertendienst/experten/z/zuern/index.html

WZB Berlin Social Science Center ( email )

Reichpietschufer 50
Berlin, 10785
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.wzb.eu/en/persons/michael-zurn

Pieter De Wilde (Contact Author)

Department of Sociology and Political Science ( email )

NO-7491 Trondheim
Norway

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