Global Governance or World Federalism? A Cosmopolitan Dispute on Institutional Models

Abstract

This paper contributes to the debate on cosmopolitan democracy by defending a model of cosmo-federalism, based on a consequentialist reading of the principle of freedom of choice. Adopting a radical democratic perspective on citizens' participation to public self-legislation, the paper first develops an analysis of the current institutional system in terms of international exclusion, and then proposes an alternative conceptualisation of the notion of citizenship as multilayered and all-inclusive. Within this framework, a critique of recent proposals for a cosmopolitan reform of global governance is drawn on the grounds of an insufficient implementation of the congruence principle. In opposition to cosmopolitan governance, a new model of world organisation is finally presented for the federal reform of the UN system