ABSTRACT
Basic to the cosmopolitan position is the idea that in a just social order all individuals deserve equal respect, possess equal rights or have an equal entitlement to well-being. Therefore it is natural to suppose that the ideal world from a cosmopolitan point of view would consist of one society, one state, which embraces all individuals, binds them together in relations of co-operation and mutual aid, and underwrites through its laws and political processes their basic equality. In a world state, so it could be argued, all individuals will at last be able to develop the relations with each other which now only occur in the framework of national states, and this will make possible not only the solution of international problems: war, economic dislocation, poverty, environmental destruction. A world state will make practical a more robust conception of international justice. Rawlsian or egalitarian principles of distributive justice will be realisable in this universal society. For the world state will not only have powers and agencies capable of sharing out goods among individuals. It should also be able to promote or make possible the relationships among individuals which incline them to regard universal sharing as a requirement of justice.
