Conference paper
POLITICAL BORDERS IN A WORLD WITH FEWER BORDERS
Henning Ottmann
; Geschwister-Scholl-Institut fuer Politische Wissenschaft, Muenchen, Deutschland
Abstract
The author is of the opinion that it is, in principle, legitimate to talk about global justice/fairness. Everybody has the right to humane living conditions, irrespective of borders and places of birth. However, we cannot expect the emergence of a world state, not even in the form of a world federation. Namely, there is no analogy between the individual’s natural state and the states’ natural state. States are already an established legal state. This means that any association of states, any federation, even a world state, can come into being only by means of an agreement, which is not very likely. The question is how much the existing borders can and should be open? Is there a universal right to the freedom of movement, the freedom of entering a country, the freedom of employment and immigration? According to the author, the universal moral expectation that every person has exactly the same, unlimited rights in these respects founders over the ethical limitations of universalism. In modernity, the universalistic moral and the ethics of closeness i.e. the responsibilities towards people as such and the responsibilities towards one’s own solidary community, have been at variance. To live in modernity means that we cannot apply only one criterion as there are at least two and they allow for the prevalence of one perspective over the other only on a case by case basis, but not generally.
Keywords
ethics of closeness; democracy; political borders; universalistic moral; world state
Hrčak ID:
23129
URI
Publication date:
26.1.2004.
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