Economic globalism and political universalism: Conflicting issues ?

Abstract

In the prevailing discourse, market and democracy are credited with such a strong unity it almost appears impossible to separate the two. The market is considered a manifest condition of democracy, the latter inexorably bound up with the former. Neither the conceptsnor the realitiesof what is or what could be the market and democracy are questioned in this discourse. In the same manner, globalisation and universalism are conceived in the discourse as being practically synonymous. The Global Village constitutes one of the fashionable catch-phrases which, though bereft of meaning, bear witness to this confusion. In this contribution, I will expatiate on the thesis that each of these dichotomies (market/democracy and globalisation/universalism) is more contradictory than complementary. The association of these two sets of issues, de?ned by an economic globalisation based on the market and a democratic political universalism, is as a result, utter nonsense which forces us to rethink the market, democracy and universalism within the perspective of a far-from-?nal history.