9 - Global Institutional Imaginaries

Summary

The liberal international order of states has engendered a global order of transnational and supranational agents, institutions, and practices, generating a nascent global polity. This polity is animated by social purposes, including peace and security, economic growth, global health, and the rights and well-being of individuals. It also champions a distinctive diversity regime, centred on the moral primacy of the individual. Focusing on six components of the emerging global polity, the chapter describes both the institutional lineaments and the cultural core of the global polity-in-formation, including its distinctive diversity regime. Ethnic, religious, and other forms of cultural difference are legitimated, but only so long as they do not compromise the fundamental equality and autonomy of the persons who stand as global citizens. The global polity is also in fundamental tension with the liberal order, ultimately challenging basic principles of the nation state: sovereignty, citizenship rights, and national boundaries.