As noted above, our global democracy requires a grant of authority from national governments at the outset, initially limited to certain issues, such as climate change, that can only be handled globally.
We have described the necessary role for enforcement, to ensure implementation of decisions, under its own heading above.
Since a global democracy is such an ambitious goal, it’s worth considering carefully whether a more incremental approach could work.
A great deal of evidence suggests that it does not and will not:
A Brief Review of Incremental Approaches to Global Governance
A clear-eyed look at three of the most ambitious incremental steps toward global governance in the world today reveals that all three are failing because of their inadequate inclusiveness and their continued reliance on separate countries as the ultimate loci of power.
First, the European Union. With its multinational governance structure, the open internal borders of the Schengen area, and a common currency, the EU has stood for decades as a beacon of progress beyond the nation-state model. Yet today the EU is unraveling, in part due to pressure from the outside: immigration is stressing the Schengen area’s open borders and its politics, while ISIS-driven terrorism and Russian territorial aggression and election interference threaten Europe’s safety and civil liberties.
In addition, the EU is beset with an ongoing governance crisis due to its incomplete economic integration: its common currency and central bank are not paired with fiscal union, with the result that economic shocks lead to considerable human pain and consequent political instability. The EU’s hybrid model, with countries at least equal in power to the popularly elected European Parliament, is failing, as is Europe’s attempt to maintain borders excluding everyone outside.
Second, the United Nations. Our most legitimate and inclusive supra-national body to date is sadly unable to solve our most pressing global problems, because its power rests entirely on that of countries, especially the five permanent members of the Security Council. With separate sovereignty, countries pursue divergent interests, most often in competition with one another, and consequently fail to act together where global coordination is most urgently needed.
The current proposal for UN Parliamentary Assembly is a step in the right direction, but even if created, it would still be paired with the General Assembly and the Security Council, enabling countries still to torpedo progress as surely as they do today.
Third, trade agreements. Business naturally flows across borders, and companies need predictability and stability to enable trans-border investment. The best way to guarantee this stability would be through open, democratic, inclusive negotiations, which could also lead to a global rise in labor, health, and environmental standards, rather than the prevailing race-to-the-bottom. But instead, as noted above, draft agreements like the recently proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership are negotiated in secret and loaded with provisions that narrowly benefit certain interests, and include enforcement mechanisms that undermine, rather than elevate, global standards. As a result, these lopsided draft agreements arouse public and official opposition, blocking their enactment. A previous agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement, famously provoked the armed Zapatista rebellion — the polar opposite of stability — in Mexico.
The EU, the UN, and various trade agreements are the strongest measures in play today to transcend the limitations of national governments. Yet all three are hobbled because their power depends on that of separate countries. People’s direct voice is limited in the EU, and nonexistent in the UN and in trade agreements to date. So the supra-national entities respond to the demands of national governments, but not of people, and therefore fail to meet people’s needs. The EU, like all individual countries, is also insufficiently inclusive.
The division of our world into separate countries is the common point of failure across all these incremental approaches. It is also at the root of each of our biggest crises.
So, to create a global system that works, we must change this model fundamentally, by introducing a global democracy.