'The power of the pen': Liberalism's ethical dynamic and world politics

Abstract

While the role of 'publicity' in establishing a mechanism of ethical development is axiomatic to liberal political theory, its actual and potential significance as an agency for the ethical development of world politics is largely under-appreciated. However, recent cases such as the Brent Spar campaign, the landmines treaty, and the rise of 'ethical consumerism' suggest that the liberal conceptualisation of a 'publicity-reflectivity' mechanism, in the context of certain medium and long term political and technological developments, is operational and generating an ethical dynamic to world politics. Moreover, when this actually existing dynamic is considered in the context of an information and communication order that operates far short of requirements of equity (in terms. of distorted opportunities for access and participation, concentrations of ownership, and the reproduction of cultural hegemony), the potential capacity for ethical development latent in world politics could be further realised through channelling greater political energy to the global information and communication order.