Survey Article: Four Models of a Global Order with Cosmopolitan Intent: An Empirical Assessment

The present article has the aim to reconstruct four basic models of global order with cosmopolitan intent, identifying the empirical premises built into each and, on this basis, to examine the extent to which developments contributing to the realization of each model can be empirically identified. We embark, as it were, on an empirical assessment of the realizability of various normative theories. This empirical assessment asks not so much how close reality is to the model but, rather, to what extent the social and economic pre-requisites of each model can be seen to be developing in the right direction (accommodating developments). As a side effect of this exercise, the article also concludes that the empirical judgments underlying the models of global order are more important than differences in the justification of theoretical procedures or moral principles behind them.