Wie viel gemeinsame Ethik braucht eine Weltwirtschaftsordnung? – Eine historisch-genetische Annäherung / How much concerted ethics does our international economic order need?

Globalization is observed with large skepticism by a lot of people in western countries. This paper argues for the legitimacy of the globalization process by applying a historical- genetic approach. Thereby, it will be shown that western societies have developed a productive dualism of a particularistic and universalistic ethics. However, living together in a society and especially in the world community cannot be solely based on a large value consent, as the project “Weltethos” promoted by Hans Küng suggests. Instead, a conceptual framework for a world economic system has to take into account the interests of individuals and peoples. Thus, a recourse to the ideas of the social contract theory and the public choice theory as advocated e.g. by James Buchanan is more promising.