Stability for the Right Reasons Beyond Liberalism: Rawls and Kazanistan

In The Law of Peoples , John Rawls ( 1999b ) sketches an international political system oriented toward pluralism and stability: liberal and decent peoples can cooperate to address poverty, aggression, and systematic violations of human rights without requiring worldwide convergence on a liberal creed. To illustrate a nonliberal yet decent society, Rawls introduces Kazanistan, a “decent hierarchical Muslim people” that respects fundamental human rights while interpreting them within an Islamic comprehensive doctrine; for example, freedom of religion is upheld even though certain high public offices are restricted to Muslims (Moon 2014 : 874; Rawls 1999b : 64–75).