The Volokh Conspiracy
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My New Cato Institute Article Making the "Cosmopolitan Case Against World Government"
It is part of Cato's Defending Globalization series.
Today the Cato Institute published my article, "A Cosmopolitan Case Against World Government." It is part of Cato's "Defending Globalization" series. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:
The debate over world government and "global governance" typically pits cosmopolitan supporters of globalization against nationalist champions of state sovereignty. The latter fear world government because of the threat it poses to nationalism and the autonomy of nation-states. They also typically view free trade and international migration with great suspicion.
However, one need not be a nationalist to oppose world government. I am a cosmopolitan supporter of free trade and an advocate of a strong presumption in favor of open borders immigration. In addition, I am no fan of nationalism, which I consider to be one of the greatest evils of the modern world.
Yet I also take a dim view of world government and other similar proposals. These positions are not contradictory. Indeed, they are mutually reinforcing. Precisely because I see great value in free migration and the opportunity to "vote with your feet," I oppose the creation of a global state whose authority would be almost impossible to escape.
A world government would close off opportunities for foot voting. It would also undermine valuable interjurisdictional competition and exacerbate some key weaknesses of the democratic process. In the worst-case scenario, it could lead to the establishment of a global tyranny from which there may be no escape. Despite the claims of advocates, a world government is also probably not necessary to solve the world's major problems. Indeed, it might even exacerbate some of those dangers.
In addition to critiquing the idea of world government, the article explains why this issue is worth considering, despite the fact there is very little chance that anything like a world government will actually be established anytime soon.
The article is an expanded and updated version of a piece I wrote for the World Government Research Network site in 2017. I also have an extensive discussion of this issue in Chapter 8 of my book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom.
