Global citizenship? political rights under imperial conditions

Abstract

Citizenship has developed as a central notion of political and legal theory in the last two decades. It has, in several respects, replaced justice in an effort to render it more concrete and integrative. There is a communitarian undertone in citizenship that could make it a less abstract way of thematizing fairness and autonomy. However, this may still be plausible if maintained within the precinct of a presupposed and implicit political facticity. It works and is meaningful in the context of a “city,” of an already existing political community. However, citizenship is also used to project a cosmopolitan form of good life. Global citizenship is the other side of a coin that is labelled global constitutionalism. The paper will challenge this use and expose its possible ideological motivation. It might be that globalism, in this case, is better equated with imperialism.