The Idea of World Government by Yunker James A

Author:Yunker, James A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Take, for example, Mr. Emery Reves’ The Anatomy of Peace, which has received much comment lately. Perhaps it is unfair to call this book a “plan” at all, for it is rather an appeal for a world-state than a definite proposal for one, an appeal making up in apostolic fervor what it lacks in definiteness…The trouble with this sort of thing is that it doesn't get us anywhere. Little appeal needs to be made for the world-state as a theory: in the abstract almost everyone is already in favor of it. It is the world-state in whatever concrete form it has so far been put that has failed to win adherents. Yet, until it has been put into concrete form, has been made a definite proposal, all argument in favor of it is bound to be more or less words.3

The “Great Dilemma” referred to in the title of Rider's own book is that of the difficulty of devising a reasonable and acceptable system of national voting weights in a world federation. In effect, Rider proposed a solution to the problem that we would today describe as the global economic gap. Rider himself expressed the problem in terms of the gap between the “civilized” and the “uncivilized” nations. The “civilized” nations of North America, Western Europe, and so on (i.e. the rich nations), would never consider participating in a world government with genuine power and authority that was subject to simple majority rule—and that would hence be controlled by the vast, impoverished populations of the “uncivilized” nations. And yet if world government is to be acceptable to all nations, the principle of apportioning voting weight among the nations would have to possess compelling rationality, plausibility, and apparent legitimacy.

Rider's proposed solution was to make the respective voting weights of the nations in the world government legislature proportional to their “educational attainments,” in terms of total number of years of education completed by their populations. Since the average educational attainment in the “civilized” nations was high, they would enjoy dominant voting weight in the world legislature. But this would be acceptable to the poor nations as well, since it makes good sense to give more voting weight to individuals with more education. Such individuals would presumably utilize their greater voting weight more wisely and intelligently. Rider envisioned arms races being replaced by “education races” as nations enthusiastically threw their resources into educating their respective populations. Their immediate motivation would be to increase their influence in the world government, but this strategy would also increase their economic prosperity, which is largely determined by the productivity of the citizens, which in turn is largely determined by educational attainment. Clearly this is a very dubious idea, but at least it constituted a sincere effort to deal with a serious issue mostly ignored by other, better known formulators of world government schemes.

Rider's proposal for a full-scale, multi-purpose world government qualitatively beyond the United Nations, was one of many. There have been dozens of specific world government blueprints

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