World Government—What Are the Obstacles?
WOVEN through history are a thousand ideas of what a good government should be, from the Li (the rationalized social order) of Confucius to concepts promoted at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C., whence the United Nations sprang. But whose ideas about government can work on a global scale?
The world is made up of more than 150 nations, each with its own way of governing. Many of those governments are aligned with one or the other of the two major political ideologies competing for world supremacy. A large number of people, though, have lost confidence in both of them. Neither has solved the major problems of the world. Rather, because of their rivalry, the world has become more unstable and frightening. Space-age technology has greatly added to the concern.
An Interdependent Society
If space-age technology has taught us only one thing about our planet Earth, it is this: Life is interconnected, from the tiniest one-celled creature to the most complex; practically everything is related to everything else. Alexander Pope, the famous English poet, in An Essay on Man (1733-34), described this relationship between all things as a “Vast chain of Being! which from God began.”
The principle is true of nations as well. They are interdependent. There is perhaps no country, not even an island, that can operate independently in today’s shrinking world. One country’s demand for petroleum, for example, is dependent on another country’s ability to produce petroleum for export. And, like a chain reaction, a country’s access or lack of access to petroleum often moves many seemingly unrelated industries—cosmetics, plastics, pharmaceuticals—to hire or lay off workers.
Or compare the industrialized nations of the “north” with the less developed nations of the “south.” This “north” has one fourth of the world’s population but owns nine tenths of its manufacturing industries and is paid four fifths of its income. Yet, the economies of the world are linked. For example, in just one country, the United States, one job in 20 is connected to supplying goods to countries of the “south.” The “north” is dependent upon the “south” for raw materials used in computers, radios, televisions and military equipment. But the basic needs of food, water, shelter, jobs, health care, education and sanitation are much more available in the “north” than in most countries in the “south.”
For a world government to work, it must understand that such things as poverty, unemployment, pollution and the nuclear dilemma are like interlocking pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. They cannot be solved separately. They must all be solved together or not at all. Historian William McNeill observed: “When and whether a transition will be made from a system of states to an empire of the earth is the gravest question humanity confronts.”
Yet most nations act as if they were tribes ruled by chieftains, with no truly workable concept of global responsibility for economic and social development. Willy Brandt, former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, recently stated in World Press Review: “In our modern world, mass hunger, economic stagnation, environmental catastrophe, political instability, and terrorism cannot be quarantined within national borders.” One nation’s problems, in fact, can affect the stability of the whole world.
What Is Needed
For a world government to work, it must be able to mobilize the world’s physical and human resources to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. In a number of countries, a person’s overwhelming concern is the hunt for food, water and shelter for just that day. Without a person’s basic needs being satisfied, the body and the mind are straitjacketed and the spirit is stripped of self-respect.
If a world government is to work, it must be capable of diminishing the gap in the living standards between rich and poor countries. “There is enough wealth for everyone,” says noted French editor André Fontaine, “if only we would use it for the benefit of mankind.” The wealth of the prosperous nations has not trickled down to the poor. The poor have become poorer. Note from the accompanying chart how many of earth’s population lack basic needs.
For a world government to work, it must be just and not favor people living in one part of the world over those living in another part. To whom can we turn for a world rule that can and will serve for all mankind’s benefit? To humans?
[Chart on page 6]
People Who Lack Basic Needs
—Undernourished 510 million
—Adults Illiterate 800 million
—Children Not in School 250 million
—No Access to Health Care 1,500 million
—Life Expectancy Below 60 Year 1,700 million
—Inadequate Housing 1,030 million
—Less Than $90 (U.S.) per Year Income 1,300 million
Source: Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Sciences