On democratic mindedness in global normative theorising

In this contribution I argue that the appeal to the ‘democratic underlabourer thesis’ in the context of international political theorising is premature at best. While theorists who are democratically minded often assume their democratic commitments to equate to an unconditional egalitarian commitment, I argue that as a political, governance-related concept, democratic equality is in fact conditional. More specifically, it is conditional upon all parties endorsing a further set of related beliefs and convictions regarding moral and political relations between persons as well as relevant governmental institutions. As such, democratic mindedness reflects commitment to a set of doctrinal beliefs that are too restrictive in the international political context, where general commitment to democracy cannot be assumed. In lieu of democratic mindedness I sketch a possible conception of ‘open-mindedness’ as a more adequate dispositional approach in the context of current international political theorising.