Conference paper
IS IT STILL POSSIBLE TO JUSTIFY THE STATE?
Eugen Pusić
; professor emeritus, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author looks into the possibility of the emergence of a structure that would have a suitable regulative capacity to control the process of globalization. First he gives an account of the state and its possibilities. His starting assumption is that the state is a social structure supposed to stabilize the interactive communication in a relatively big space. In the last two hundred years, the developed states have been characterized by a democratic consensus (whose potentials have not been fully exploited) and by the proliferation of the state apparatus. However, this condition has been challenged by the colossal technological advances of the late 20th century. The sovereignty of states at the political and economic level is no longer viable. The author wonders whether the evolution of the modern state could be repeated in the course of establishing a global order. The first step would be the establishment of the global monopoly of force. This is not impossible, but the problem is that it may not be stable. The second step is the social consensus that would encompass the whole world. The author’s starting assumption is that each legitimization consensus contains the elements of the former consensus. The global expansion of the democratic consensus is unlikely, as are democratic joint decisionmaking, liberty, legal equality and a minimum of social welfare. The third step is the establishment of a global management system. It has turned out that it can emerge although the global monopoly of force has not been stabilized and there is no global social consensus. The author concludes that today’s states are becoming parts of planetary regulating mechanisms and the hub of the global organizational networks.
Keywords
state; globalization; democratic consensus; social consensus; global monopoly of force
Hrčak ID:
24229
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2002.
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