©Cheneval/University of Zurich/12.08.04
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In light of this assumption, it makes sense to direct the reflection of political philosophy
towards the legal and political processes that constitute or transform the traditional system of
states and international organizations. Political entities are always the result of integration (or
disintegration processes. In the actual geopolitical context, two basic types of legitimate political
integration processes coexist: democratic state-building and MDI. They are both constitutive and
complementary. Democratic state-building is primordial. Modern liberal democracy and the
relative economic well-being that comes with open societies and democratically controlled free
market economies is first and foremost realized in states and never realized without them. The
modern democratic nation-state has substantially promoted the emancipation and autonomy of
the individual human being . The failure of states always leads to the loss of these values in
circumstances of anarchy and crime. Even indigenous peoples who for good reasons claim the
right to non-capitalist forms of life in protected territories depend on the constitutional protection
of the modern liberal state.
However, democratic nation-building is not an end in itself. Even the most advanced
modern democratic states create legitimacy deficits. Through economic protectionism,
indifference to the practices of multinational companies in structurally weak world regions, and
through welfare-state chauvinism they substantially contribute to the causation of excessive
poverty and poor governance abroad. Through exclusion of disenfranchised migrant residents
from political and social rights they create a two-class system within their borders. Through their
foreign policy, democratic states, among which are some of the most powerful states in the
world, affect people abroad and therefore outside the realm of democratic control and feedback.
The system of independent states, democratic or not, creates accountability-free zones. There is a
basic democracy and legitimacy deficit in the relations between states, even democratic states.
Furthermore, it is rational for democratic states to seek increased economic integration with other
Convention