World polity: anatomy of and arguments for regional and global integration

Beyer, Cornelia

Abstract

This article is inspired by taking sort of a medical view on the international political world2. A medical view here means that first we need to understand the anatomy of the organism that we observe, i.e. the world. Secondly, we need to make some diagnoses and prognoses about possible threats to the functioning of this organism as well as how to restore health. In Political Science terms this means identifying threats to security, peace, survival and wellbeing of states, nations, and individuals, as well as the whole, and to identify possible political solutions to these threats. The first part of this article will present the history of global integration and why it is necessary to prevent war and to facilitate peace at the example of Europe. Europe is here regarded a greenhouse for global integration. This part describes the attempts at integration before the major wars in Europe in the last centuries, the reasons for these wars as the failures or lack of integration, and the way it was overcome. The second part of this article will present an ideal type global political anatomy. This will be illustrated with graphics, which are thought to make the global political system better understood by visualising key aspects of it. The third part of this paper will discuss the nature of reality, which is important to understand conflicts in today’s world, as ‘virtual’, material, social and cultural. It will present a challenge to Alexander Wendt’s recent idea of reality as a hologram and discuss how civilizational conflicts, as described by Samuel Huntington, can possibly be resolved by creating a global demos (polity) by establishing a global parliament. As the basis for the latter argument, finally, this paper will present and analyse the results from the survey on global citizenship. Global demos here refer to the idea of a global polity, or identification of the global population with the global, or to say it alternatively: as global citizens. It is argued that, if we would have a global demos, this would facilitate global integration, which is necessary for peace. For example, further global integration towards a world state with a world parliament, is thought to be only possible and sensible if there is a reasonable global demos to build this entity on.For this reason, this article presents results from a survey run at the University of Hull in 2016 intended to measure global citizenship.

Citation

Beyer, C. (2017). World polity: anatomy of and arguments for regional and global integration. International journal of business and social science, 8(3), 32-50

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 25, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-03
• Deposit Date: Apr 25, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 25, 2017
• Journal: International journal of business and social science
• Electronic ISSN: 2219-6021
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 32-50
• Keywords: Global democracy; World political system; Wendt, Alexander, 1966-
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/450815
• Publisher URL: http://www.ijbssnet.com/journal/index/3722
• Additional Information: This is a copy of an open access article published in International journal of business and social science, 2017, v.8 issue 3.
• Contract Date: Apr 25, 2017