Governance in a Disenchanted World: The End of Moral Society

The prospects of global governance depend on reaffirming the separation of private morals and public interests against the allures of all fundamentalisms. This path-breaking book expounds the idea of a disenchanted world composed of nation states and global functional systems.

The nation state is losing some of its regulatory prerogatives and, at the same time, extending its legitimacy base in `chains of legitimacy’ to transnational institutions. There is neither a global democracy nor a global government. Therefore, establishing alternative forms of legitimacy, accountability and participation in a secular world seem mandatory. Helmut Willke examines the resurgence of moral reasoning in global affairs, driven by various fundamentalisms, that indicates a real danger of a regression of democracy. The separation of private morals and public policies, this book argues, remains the basis of global aspirations of democracy.

Governance in a Disenchanted World takes into account globalization as a precondition for modern forms of governance and uses the global financial crisis to demonstrate the delusions of public morality and the virtues of democratic resilience. Researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students in the fields of political science, governance theory, global governance, sociological theory, political philosophy, legal studies, and global finance will find this essential book an invaluable resource.