Political justice in a complex global order: rethinking pluralist legitimacy

Abstract

Abstract Principles of global political justice define how global society's governing institutional powers should be constituted, and by whom they should be exercised. Political justice seeks to establish political legitimacy under moral constraint—achieved through forms of governance function, political inclusion and political participation that respect the equal autonomy of all individuals within the global order as a whole. Over the last century, the dominant institutional model of political justice has been liberal internationalist. But erosion of the territorial and national boundaries of state-based political governance, accelerated by processes of ‘globalization’, has produced deepening legitimacy crises in the liberal international order. This article addresses this challenge by assessing what normative framework of political justice is best suited to the new global era of complex interdependence. Drawing on claims articulated by real-world global justice activists, it argues for a normative theoretical critique and reconstruction of the idea of pluralist legitimacy—replacing the familiar liberal internationalist model of pluralist legitimacy with a more complex variant of global pluralist legitimacy. This analysis contributes a cohesive conceptual framework for understanding the normative significance of diverse contemporary global legitimacy crises and activist justice claims that may otherwise appear disparate. In doing so, it illuminates the role played by justice ideals in guiding trajectories of change within the dynamic global political order.