Global civics

Global civics suggests to understand civics in a global sense as a social contract among all world citizens in an age of interdependence and interaction. The disseminators of the concept define it as the notion that we have certain rights and responsibilities towards each other by the mere fact of being human on Earth.

The advocates of the notion attempt to demonstrate that it is possible to imagine global civics. According to this notion, in an increasingly interdependent world, the world citizens need a compass that would frame mindsets on a global scale, and create a shared consciousness and sense of global responsibility related to specific world issues such as environmental problems and nuclear proliferation.

The term global civics was first coined by Hakan Altinay, a nonresident senior fellow with the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, in a working paper published in March 2010. The concept builds upon the basic tenets behind global ethics, global justice and world citizenship, inviting everyone to question their increasingly important role in a highly interdependent world. In early 2011, Altinay published Global Civics: Responsibilities and Rights in an Interdependent World, a book of articles on global civics put forth by academics and intellectuals all around the world.

Opponents of the global civics concept argue that even a modest level of exercising responsibility towards all the people living in the world is so overwhelming and nearly impossible to achieve. These arguments also posit that civics assumes an effective state and enforcement. The claim goes that since there is no such thing as a world government, global civics implementation is not feasible. Also, it has been suggested that superpowers of the world are selfish and dangerous nations, and that they do not feel constrained by international legitimacy and laws. Finally, the critics claim that any experience of pan-global solidarity among human beings cannot form the basis of constellation of rights and responsibilities as it is nascent at best and the experience of being a global citizen is a privilege restricted to international elites and a few activists.

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