Demokracja kosmopolityczna: zarys problematyki
Cosmopolitan Democracy: Outline of the Issues

Summary/Abstract: The subject of the paper is an analysis and critique of a trend in political theory known as the new cosmopolitanism. According to the interpretation outlined in the paper, the conceptions of the new cosmopolitanism are, on the one hand, an illustration of the problematic status of democracy itself, but also, on the other, a novel attempt to endow the concept of democracy with new dimensions and a new dynamic. We introduce the concept of the “cosmopolitan minimum” which, as a metatheorerical and methodological tool, we employ in order to argue that, at present stage of the debate at least, it is impossible to point out to a basic set of claims and practical recommendations which could be agreed upon by the representatives of alternative approaches and rival theories of the new cosmopolitanism. In particular, our analysis demonstrates that the existing formulations of the cosmopolitan politics, and its possible practical implementations, do not share any such “cosmopolitan minimum” capable of securing its future success. We suggest that a proper method to strive towards the cosmopolitan ideals is to formulate them in a way which is both cosmopolitan and democratic, i.e. with participation of those whose voice has been so far disregarded.

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