A Kantian Global Order?

Kant argues that freedom can be secured only in a rightful condition. In Metaphysics of Morals, he makes it obligatory to exit the state of nature and establish a rightful condition, where the public authority is authorized by an omnilateral will to use coercion justiciably, for securing everyone’s right and freedom. Kant uses the word ‘republic’ to characterize the rightful condition, which a liberal democracy of our time closely approximates. A liberal democratic form of government respects people’s choices, invites their participation in governance, and shows a representative character, much like Kant’s republics. The argument gets extended in Perpetual Peace, in which he argues that a stable global order could be achieved if only the world consisted of republican states – or liberal democracies – organized as ‘a permanent congress of states’, or as ‘a world republic’ or at least as ‘a league’ for averting future wars. It is clear, then, that Kant considers establishing a rightful condition at the international level also, in a multilateral spirit, which alone would assure the freedom and rights of the states themselves. The rightful condition is threatened by what Kant calls ‘despotism’. Despotism implies degeneration of the civil state into statelessness (going back to state of nature), or a regime where the public authority vests all powers into his own person, or where the legislative, executive and juridical powers of the public authority are not made separate and distinct. The threat to the rightful condition at the international level comes when one state exercises abundant power unilaterally, or when the proposal for world peace recommends accepting a preponderant power as the security provider, thus, contradicting the spirit of multilateralism on which Kant’s arguments rest. The contemporary remembering of empire – a form of despotic order by all means – challenges Kant’s assumptions and, if Kant is correct, it threatens not only world peace but also the freedom and rights of both the individuals and the states. The remembering of empire as a legitimate mode of governance for its alleged ‘benefits’ runs counter to the postulate of public right (in Metaphysics of Morals) as well as the principles considered by Kant (in Perpetual Peace) as necessary for achieving the ‘ultimate aim’ of the rights of states, that is, a stable and peaceful order. In this paper, I will examine the politics of remembering empire in the light of Kant’s arguments, and assess its implications for the contemporary global order.