Transnational Justice and Democracy

Abstract

The title of my contribution seems to signal a tension, indeed virtually a contradiction, in a number of respects. Democracy is generally understood as a form of a political organization and government in which, through general and public participatory procedures, a sufficiently legitimate political will is formed that acquires the force of law. Justice, by contrast, appears (at least in the eyes of many theorists of democracy) to be a value external to this context that is understood not so much as connected with procedures of “input” or “throughput” legitimation but instead as a concept oriented to “outputs” or outcomes. At times, justice is even understood—alluding to Plato—as an otherworldly idea, which, when transported into the “cave” of everyday life, only causes trouble and ends up as an undemocratic elite project. 1 In methodological terms, too, this difference is sometimes marked by contrasting a “worldly” form of political thought with “abstract” and otherworldly philosophical reflection on justice. 2 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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