Cosmopolitanism and the question of sovereignty

Cosmopolitanism has variously been credited with the possibility of framing human rights in an international order, being more capacious than state-centric sovereignty. However, this casting puts the very definition of the political at risk. This article seeks to address the question as to how to think the political and its binding force with and apart from sovereignty. I would want to argue that sovereignty has and should retain its place—in the formation of political subjectivity, and as normative horizon. At the same time, I wish to explore elements of a symbolic relationship between citizen and subject that could indicate ways of thinking the political subjectivity of the cosmopolites. One of the resources for such symbolisation can be found in the genre of the fable, closely shadowing the theorisation of sovereignty, while transversally crossing its claims, relating otherwise mutually exclusive identifications with each other.