World Federalism
The most decentralized model of world federalism is the confederation of States, or world confederalism, which gives the States a higher degree of power and freedom in which countries preserve their sovereignty, relinquishing to the federal authority only the powers to manage and regulate intergovernmental relationships.
The European Union can be considered an example of such system of government, because its Member States preserve their sovereignty even though they relinquish part of it to the community's authorities in specific matters.
Proposals for a world government can be found as far back as Ancient Greece, India and China, mostly tied to a mystical cosmology.
The Campaign for World Government was founded in 1937 by pacifists and feminists Rosika Schwimmer and Lola Maverick Lloyd.
The campaign aimed to learn from the weaknesses of the League of Nations by establishing a federal world government as an effective means to abolish war.
"[14] (1937) outlines the campaign's approach to put the demands into practise: a World Constitutional Convention would be held to lay the groundwork for a Federation of Nations with democratic elections.
The pamphlet further includes several policy suggestions, e.g., universal membership, direct representation, separation of powers, abolition of military forces, standardization of an international date system, the peaceful transfer of people out of population-dense regions, and a combined global free-trade and command economy.
[15][16] Advocacy tactics involved congressional testimony, lobbying of legislators, national letter-writing campaigns, and participation in world government conferences.
The campaign succeeded in motivating the resolution at the 1938 New York State Constitutional Convention encouraging President Roosevelt to call a world constitutional convention, and several Congressional resolutions and bills, including the "Alexander Peace Bill" (H.J.R.
[15] 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.
A world congress, made up of a House of Representative and a Senate should decide on matters related to defence, trade and currency.
It is not between free enterprise and planned economy, nor between capitalism and communism that the choice lies, but between federalism and power politics.
[citation needed] In 1949, six U.S. states—California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, New Jersey, and North Carolina—applied for an Article V convention to propose an amendment "to enable the participation of the United States in a world federal government".
After his release, Davis and several supporters founded "Operation Oran", entering a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he gave a short speech before being escorted out of the hall: "I interrupt you in the name of the people of the world not represented here.
He arrived at the conclusion that the gravity of the situation demanded more profound actions and the establishment of a "world government" was the only logical solution.
[35][36] In his "Open Letter to the General Assembly of the United Nations" of October 1947, Einstein emphasized the urgent need for international cooperation and the establishment of a world government.
[51] Fourteen parliamentary sessions of a Provisional World Parliament have been held under the framework of this constitution from 1982 to the present[52] and have passed dozens of acts of legislation on issues of global concern.
Proponents of world federalism point to existential crises, such as climate change, war and pandemics, which make global coordination necessary and inevitable.
An argument revolving around political realism asserts that, while conventional approaches (diplomacy, deterrence, disarmament, international organizations, etc.)
have not avoided the most undesirable outcomes, world federalism instead is a realistic extension of the proven concepts of rule of law and liberal democracy to the global level.
[4] 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.
World federalists argue that these issues originate from the insistence on national sovereignty and the lack of democratic structures at the global level.
