Multilateral Democracy from a Republican Point of View

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that the idea of demoicracy as multilateral democracy is not dependent on a purely liberal conception of democracy; it is also rooted in republicanism.¹ The general thrust of the argument again follows a constructivist approach of political philosophy: the multilateral dimension of republicanism is explored theoretically from the perspective of states adhering to republican principles and willing to promote them in their institutional engagements with each other. Although constructivist, this implies important normative presuppositions, such as the universal standards that republics accept: namely, that all states ought to respect the human rights of all individuals, minority rights, and the jus cogens (peremptory norm) of international law in relation to all states, peoples, and individuals. This minimal condition, however, is very different from the cosmopolitan claim to bring all political communities under the roof of a world republic. The main reason for taking a constructivist approach, and a critical stance regarding certain abstract forms of cosmopolitanism, is the republican understanding of non-domination as the right to collective self-government within the limits of adequate procedural rules of self-determination. Republics may not be ends in themselves, but they are political entities that claim to be entitled to self-government on the basis that their citizens choose to form a separate realm of political justice, and that other republics recognize their status as a states-people.