3 - Democracy and Global Law

Summary

Chapter 3 explains how the original antinomies of revolutionary citizenship culminated in the military regimes of the interwar era in Europe, and in post-war South America. It argues that the construct of the citizen at the heart of modern democracy was eventually reformed through the development, nationally, of welfare states and, internationally, of human rights law, which together created a deep integrational constitution for democratic citizenship. This dual process placed democratic systems on new foundations, close to a global constitutional model, and it facilitated the legitimational and integrational functions attached to democratic institutions. However, this process of stabilization involved the abstraction of democratic legitimacy from real citizens, providing constitutional premises for democratic organization by separating citizens from real national affiliations and real inter-group conflicts.