Philosophical Foundations Of Human Rights

The multi-faceted processes of globalization have been associated with the increasingrninterconnectedness of the world or the creation of a global village. These processes are,rnhowever, full of ambiguities in that they challenge human freedom, dignity, rule of law andrndemocratic self-determination. Especially, economic globalization creates what Pheng Chearncalls the “inhuman conditions’ that describe the defective features of human existence due torncommodification, technology and totalitarian domination. In this condition of human existence,rncosmopolitanism is being advocated as a practical consciousness of universal humanism and asrna political project to regulate the dehumanizing effects of economic globalization. The thesisrnexplores and analyzes Jurgen Habermas’ conception of the cosmopolitan condition asrnconstitutionally structured multi-level global governance without global government gearedrntowards the global realization of peace, human rights, and democracy. Habermas upholds thernenlightenment ideals of rationality, freedom, human rights and democracy based on the notion ofrncommunicative reason implicit in everyday use of language. Hence, Habermas defends thernuniversality of the constitutional state subject to procedural discourse. The democratic ideal atrnthe level of a state is to bring the political and economic system under the will of the peoplernarticulated in discourse. The global realization of human rights and democracy is conceived asrnthe control of supranational and transnational governance by the will of world citizensrndeveloped in national and transnational public spheres. I argue that Habermas’ democraticrntheory seems to be unrealistic in existing liberal democracies where the autonomy of politicalrndiscourse and public sphere is challenged by political and economic forces. Analogously,rnHabermas’ cosmopolitan project is problematic in that the development of cosmopolitanrnconsciousness and global public sphere is compromised by economic globalization. In as muchrnas national and transnational public spheres depend on uneven global economic structure; it isrnunlikely that Habermas’ project will realize the goal of overcoming global economic and socialrninequalities. I argue that the development of popular based nationalism in the postcolonial southrncan make the state serve the interest of the majority of the people and also challenge economic globalization

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