En politisk forfatning for det pluralistiske verdenssamfunnet

This article is a translation of Eine politische Verfassung für die pluralistische
Weltgesellschaf which is published in Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion: philosophische
Aufsäze (2005). The article deals with the project of forming a cosmopolitan order and a
harmonization of national policies by agreeing upon and implementing shared global politics
which require an intergovernmental coordination. This project has its origin from Hobbes and
Kant, and Habermas discuss Kant"s concept of a world republic and a constitution which
apply to all the citizens in the world. Habermas argues that the Kantian project must be
understood in the international political situation today, and that we have to substitute the
traditional and Kantian cosmopolitan ideal of a world republic by the project of a
"constitutionalization� of international law. Habermas suggest that the world community need
a political constitution for an emerging world society which allows for global governance
without a global government. This solution Habermas denotes as a global extension of
domestic politics. A presupposition for this argument is that it has been a shift that has taken
place from the former national to the present post-national constellation. In order to realize
this international coordination and transnational harmonization, the national states has to
perceive themselves as members of an international community and to act accordingly. Such
an arrangement requires first a change in the conception of state-sovereignty. Then citizens
will enjoy, in addition to their national citizenship, the status of world-citizens.