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World federalism or global federalism is the political concept of an additional, global layer of democratic governance above nation states based on federalist principles. A world federation would have authority on issues of global reach, while preserving a maximum of national sovereignty. World federalism is distinguished from unitary world government models by the principle of subsidiarity, by which decisions are made at the most local level that is effective, thus preserving national sovereignty to a large degree. Proponents maintain that a world federation offers a more effective and accountable global governance structure than the existing United Nations organization, while simultaneously allowing wide autonomy for national, regional and local governments.

Overview

Distinction to the existing United Nations

The United Nations, beyond the United Nations Security Council (which has the ability to issue mandatory resolutions), is limited to a mostly advisory role. Its stated purpose is to foster cooperation between existing national governments rather than exert authority over them.

Distinction to a unitary world government

A unitary world government would consist of a single, central government body with supreme sovereignty. While administrative subdivisions might exist, their powers are delegated by the central government. In a world federation based on subsidiarity, the delegation is the other way round, from local to central. Central government is subsidiary to local in that it only does what local government cannot.

Plans that sought to unify the known world by conquest have historically aimed at a centralized, unitary government.

Distinction to a world confederation

A confederation is a union of sovereign nations, which are pursuing a common cause. Member states in a confederation are free to secede from the confederation.

History

Origins of the idea

World federalism has evolved from more general proposals for a world government. Proposals for a world government can be found as far back as Ancient Greece, India and China, mostly tied to a mystical cosmology. Alexander the Great pursued the goal of conquering the entire known world and subjugating it under his rule. World governments in various forms later appeared in the works of Dante Alighieri, Immanuel Kant, Anacharsis Cloots and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, where it was explicitly proposed as a means to securing world peace. A world parliament as integral part of a world republic was mentioned first by Pecqueur in 1842. The idea has been popularized by a number of prominent authors, such as Alfred Tennyson and H. G. Wells.

The late 19th century has also seen the establishment of a number of international institutions, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Telegraphic Union, the Universal Postal Union and the Inter-Parliamentary Union with the goal of serving as "an international congress which should meet periodically to discuss international questions".

World War II

The rise of nationalism and the growing threat of fascism in Europe caused a resurgence of the idea of a unified world under democratic principles. With the release of the book Union Now, Clarence Streit proposed a political union of democratic nations. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland were to form the seed for a democratic world republic. A world congress, made up of a House of Representative and a Senate should decide on matters related to defence, trade and currency.

Current proposals for a world federation

Flag of the United Nations

There are a number of proposals for the establishment of a world federation.

• Direct reform of the UN Charter
• Incremental reform of the UN, for example through the inclusion of an elected UN Parliament
• Regional unification
• League of Democratic Nations
• Entirely new world government institution
• Strengthening of existing global institutions, such as the WTO

Criticism

Criticism of world federalism falls into four broad categories:

• infeasible: The establishment of a world federation would require extraordinary amounts of coordination and trust from all nations of the world, which are in economic and political competition with each other. Critics argue that world federalism is thus an unreachable utopia. Proponents of world federalism point to existential crises, such as climate change, war and pandemics, which make global coordination necessary and inevitable.
• undesirable: Critics argue that a concentration of power on a global level would raise the risks and probability of tyranny, deterioration of human rights and cultural homogenization. Proponents of world federalism point out that democratic and republican principles are at the core of world federalism, which are commonly seen as safeguards against tyranny and oppression in nation states.
• insufficient: Critics argue that the problems world federalism proposes to solve (e.g. climate change, war, pandemics, hunger) are too big to be solved by political means only, i.e. even if a world federation existed, it would not be capable of alleviating these issues. World federalists argue that these issues originate from the insistence on national sovereignty and the lack of democratic structures at the global level. Effective global governance could therefore deal directly with the root cause of these problems.
• unnecessary: Critics argue that it is unnecessary to establish a world federation to solve global problems. They point to existing structures of global governance, such as international organizations and the United Nations. World federalists maintain that current structures of global governance are not capable of enforcing decisions, or that they are not democratically representing the world's population.
  

Existing world federalist organizations

• Alliance for a responsible, plural and united world http://www.alliance21.org/2003/index_en.html
• Center for United Nations Constitutional Research https://www.cuncr.org/
• Centro Mexicano de Responsibilidad Global https://www.cemerg.org/
• Citizens for Global Solutions https://globalsolutions.org/
• Coalition for the International Criminal Court https://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/
• Democracia Global https://www.globaldemocracy.online/
• Democracy Without Borders https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/
• Democratic World Federalists https://dwfed.org/
• Federal Union https://federalunion.org.uk/
• Future United Nations Development System https://www.futureun.org/
• Global Voice https://www.globalvoice.solutions/
• Global Week of Action for a World Parliament https://www.worldparliamentnow.org/
• ICE Coalition https://www.icecoalition.org/
• International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect https://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/
• One World Trust https://www.oneworldtrust.org/
• The Federal Trust https://fedtrust.co.uk/
• The Global Trust https://globalharmony.info/
• The World Parliament https://worldparliament-gov.org/
• Together First https://together1st.org/
• UN 2020 http://un2020.org/
• United Nations Foundation https://unfoundation.org/
• UN Parliamentary Assembly Campaign https://unpacampaign.org/
• Vote World Parliament https://voteworldparliament.org/
• World Alliance to Transform the United Nations https://transformun.org/
• World Citizens Association of Australia https://www.wcaa.org.au/
• World Federalist Movement https://www.wfm-igp.org/
• World Federalist Movement Canada https://www.wfmcanada.org/
• World Federalist Movement Toronto Chapter https://wfmc-toronto.org/
• World Federation of United Nations Associations https://wfuna.org/
• World Government Institute https://wginstitute.org/
• World Government Research Network https://www.wgresearch.org/
• World Parliament Experiment http://world-parliament.org/
• World Service Authority https://www.worldservice.org/
• Young World Federalists https://www.ywf.world/

In popular culture

A world federation has been mentioned in several works of fiction, along with more general concepts of world government.

• Anticipations by H. G. Wells
• The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells
• Men Like Gods by H. G. Wells
• Looking Backwards by Edward Bellamy
• The World Set Free by H. G. Wells
• Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

See also

• Cosmopolitan Democracy
• World Government
• Albert Einstein
• Federalism
• Global Governance
• Regionalisation
• Immanuel Kant
• World Federalist Movement
• International Relations
• United Nations
• United Nations Parliamentary Assembly
• International Criminal Court
• Cosmopolitanism

Further reading

Published works

• Archibugi, Daniele, Amazon.com, "The Global Commonwealth of Citizens. Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy", (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008).
• Baratta, Joseph. Barnesandnoble.com, The Politics of World Federation, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003). Introduction available Globalsolutions.org
• Bummel, Andreas and Leinen, Jo. "A World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century", (Democracy Without Borders, 2018).
• Cabrera, Luis. Political Theory of Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Case for the World State (London: Routledge, 2004;2006).
• Glossop, Ronald J. "World Federation? A critical analysis of world government", (McFarland & Company, Inc., 1993).
• Hamer, Chistopher. UNW.edu.au, Global Parliament - Principles of World Federation (Oyster Bay, NSW: Oyster Bay Books, 1998).
• Kant, Immanuel. "To Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch", (Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2003).
• Lothian, Philip Henry Kerr. "Pacifism is Not Enough, Nor Patriotism Either", (Clarendon Press, 1935).
• Lykov Andrey Yurievich. World state as the future of the international community (Moscow: Prospekt, 2013).
• Mazower, Mark. "Governing the World: The History of an Idea, 1815 to the Present", (Penguin Books, 2013).
• McClintock, John. The Uniting of Nations: An Essay on Global Governance (3rd ed. revised and updated, P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2010)
• Marchetti, Raffaele. Global Democracy: For and Against. Ethical Theory, Institutional Design and Social Struggles (London: Routledge, 2008) Amazon.com, . ISBN 978-0-415-55495-4
• Privat, Edmond. "Federala Sperto", (Universala Ligo, 1958).
• Reves, Emery The Anatomy of Peace Harper and Brothers, 1945
• Strauss, Andrew. Oneworldtrust.org, Taking Democracy Global: Assessing the Benefits and Challenges of a Global Parliamentary Assembly. (London: One World Trust, 2005).
• Stark, Jim. Rescue Plan for Planet Earth: Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum (Toronto: Key Publishing House Inc., 2008)
• Wells, Henry George. "The Outline of History", (George Newnes, 1920).
• Wendt, Alexander. "Why a World State is Inevitable," European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2003), pp. 491–542
• Yunker, James A. Political Globalization: A New Vision of Federal World Government (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2007)

External links

• Lu, Catherine (December 4, 2006). "World government". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Immanuel Kant: "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" (English translation of "Zum ewigen Frieden")

Category:Forms of government Category:Federalism Category:Future Government Government