Obstacles to a world state in the shadow of the world market

This article explores the obstacles to the development and operation of a world state that are rooted in functional differentiation of modern societies, the ecological dominance of the broadly capitalist world market, and the inherent tendencies of all forms of governance to fail. It also highlights the challenges to the temporal as well as territorial sovereignty of states, whatever their scale of operation, due to the acceleration as well as globalization of social relations. Combining insights from Niklas Luhmann and Karl Marx, the article develops some novel arguments about multi-spatial metagovernance as an alternative approach to the problems posed by a world state as the guarantor of global social order

Guilt by association: The link between states’ influence and the legitimacy of intergovernmental organizations

Intergovernmental organization, Influence, Legitimacy, Guilt by association, F50, F53, F55,