Pogge on Democracy and Sovereignty

I’m hoping we can spend some class time on Tuesday unpacking the implications of Pogge’s proposed reconceptualization of sovereignty. I’m intrigued by the numerous consequences that it could have for international relations (a field of study that is almost completely dependent upon the idea of a system of sovereign territorial nation-states as a fundamental unit of analysis) as well as the fact that Pogge’s system seems to give almost total authority to citizens since they have the authority to realign themselves with a (super)majority vote. However, I’m left wondering if such a system could be viable in a place that does not have free and participatory elections; how would the people choose to realign themselves if they are not fee to vote as they please without fear of retaliation by the current government or regime?

Looking at chapter 6, I’m interested in spending time on the following statement of Pogge’s: “To the extent that citizens abandon their responsibility to control the power that is excercised in their name, their country is less than democratic” (172 in orange book; second-to-last paragraph in 6.4). With this said, it seems to me that Pogge would not classify the United States as a democracy because a vast segment of U.S. citizens do not exercise their “responsibility” (I think Pogge’s use of “responsibility” is also very telling) to control power through active participation in politics and government. With that said, I think this is another place where a conversation between Dagger and Pogge would be particularly fruitful and interesting. Both authors stress the importance of active and informed political participation (Pogge, it seems, now even goes so far to claim that a refusal to participate actively in democracy—to change flawed processes—implicates one in the violation of human rights even of individuals in other countries), yet Pogge specifically rejects much of the communitarian aspects (see his refutation of Walzer in 7) that Dagger depends upon. As such, I’m wondering what such a conversation would produce.