The Universal Republic: A Realistic Utopia?Can humanity achieve collective self-government in a highly interdependent world? Catastrophic climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics, war and displacement, the dangers of nuclear weapons and new technologies, and persistent poverty and inequality are among the global challenges that expose the weaknesses of existing international institutions as well as the profound disparities of power and vulnerability that exist among the world's people. The Universal Republic: A Realistic Utopia? examines whether a democratic world state is a feasible and desirable solution to the problem of establishing effective and just governance on the planet we share. While this question has haunted thinkers and doers for centuries, this book opens up novel perspectives by putting the powerful methods and rich data of contemporary social science into the service of a systematic analysis of several key dimensions of the broader theme. The first part of the book shows why a democratic world state -a universal republic- is possible: why it can be achieved, and how it can endure without generating a frightful global despotism. The second part of the book shows why the universal republic is desirable, by exploring how it can help bring under our collective control the persistent sources of coercion, harm, and other processes that affect us deeply across national borders. By combining insights from political philosophy and empirical political science, this work sheds new light on a crucial question of our time: how to bring about a more democratic world. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Part I Is the universal republic possible? | 15 |
Part II Is the universal republic desirable? | 99 |
Appendices | 196 |
| 215 | |
| 259 | |
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actors Anacharsis Cloots analysis Archibugi argument assembly assessment assumptions autonomy average behaviour Cabrera Cambridge University Press cent chapter citizens coercion considered constitutional constraints Correlates of War cosmopolitan countries dataset decision-making decisions delegates deliberative deliberative democracy democracy index democratic survival democratic world dimension diversity economic edited effect elected electoral democracy empirical ethnic European Journal feasibility federal Gallup Organization Gini index global democracy global governance global inequality global political Goodin groups Herfindahl index IGOs impact individual instance international organizations International Relations issues Journal of Political Kant Kelsen lasso laws majority Mathias Koenig-Archibugi normative nuclear nuclear weapons outcome Oxford University Press parliament parties peace policy values Political Science population possible preferences principle problem question relevant Research Review social specific statehood structural Studies supranational survey Tallberg Theory tion trade-offs transnational universal republic V-Dem variables viability voters voting world government World Values Survey Zürn