Kant’s foedus pacificum: Path to peace or prolegomena to neoliberalism and authoritarian corporatist globalization in contemporary liberal democratic states?

Authors

Terence Garrett, University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2020

Abstract

Immanuel Kant’s language and concept of foedus pacificum (league of peace) combined with his call for a spirit of trade promised a prescription for world peace—“seeking to end all wars forever.” Nation-state level cooperation between liberal democracies has borne out Kant’s analysis to some effect. A consequence of the twin pursuits of foedus pacificum and spirit of trade has ironically resulted in the exploitation of society. Today’s international corporations adversely affect public policies ostensibly designed to protect citizens through an anti-democratic market-based ideology within the State—as seen through the lenses of Foucauldian post-structural theory and Debord’s society of the spectacle. The author proposes that globalist-corporatist control of governing apparatuses is now exposed for its authoritarian tendencies. This action could result in the ultimate destruction of the representative democratic state with the onset of neoliberalism and authoritarianism.

Comments

The work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License .

Recommended Citation

Garrett, Terence. 2020. “Kant’s Foedus Pacificum: Path to Peace or Prolegomena to Neoliberalism and Authoritarian Corporatist Globalization in Contemporary Liberal Democratic States?” Annales. Ethics in Economic Life 23 (2): 7–20. https://doi.org/10.18778/1899-2226.23.2.01.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Annales. Etyka w Życiu Gospodarczym

DOI

10.18778/1899-2226.23.2.01