Hegel, civil society, and globalization

Peter G. Stillman

pp. 111-129

in: Andrew Buchwalter (ed), Hegel and global justice, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

This chapter approaches Hegel's views of globalization and global justice through Hegel's treatment of civil society and state, which provides an alternative to Hobbes's international state of war and Kant's cosmopolitanism. Civil society is the locus of rights; as civil society spreads beyond Europe through commerce and law, so too do the rights of human beings. But, for Hegel, civil society on its own is unstable unless ordered and guided by the state; so the expansion of civil society needs to be matched by the expansion of political institutions that counter civil society's shortcomings and make its globalization justifiable. Hegel also sees a growth of inter-state relations. As states recognize, interact with, and develop norms of common behavior with other states, they move beyond the (Hobbesian) sovereign's arbitrary will and (sometimes haltingly, and without attaining Kant's cosmopolitan ideals) towards international co-operation.

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich