Introduction

World state futures

Bibliographic Data

ID8912427
AuthorsMathias Albert (0000-0002-7768-1049), Gorm Harste (0000-0002-8822-5890, Aarhus University), Heikki Patomäki (0000-0001-9255-6783), Heikki Patamaki, Knud Erik Jørgensen (0000-0003-0868-5940, Aarhus University)
Year2012
Volume47
Issue2
Pages145-156
Publication date2012-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0010836712443165
OpenAlexW2113711282
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited27

In some contrast to the traditional and ongoing normative discussions about the desirability of a world state, new and more explicitly geo-historical questions about world political integration are being posed, especially (i) whether elements of world statehood are in existence already, (ii) whether a world state is in some sense inevitable, and (iii) whether, and under what conditions, a world state would be sustainable? For instance, the existing and emerging structures of global governance, of a global public sphere and global constitutionalism can be argued to converge to form at least nascent forms of world statehood. Building on and complementing such diagnoses of existing forms of world statehood, the question arises about whether there are possible and likely, or even inevitable, futures in which the emergence of more ‘thick’ forms of a world state, understood as a more tightly and substantially integrated expression of political community, could evolve. This possibility raises further questions about the legitimacy, viability and sustainability of such a state form. After a brief overview of these issues, the Introduction provides a preview of the following contributions of this special issue as well as the distinction between the ‘global’ and the ‘world’ as one possible future research trajectory in the present context

Context (archaeology · Corporate governance · Economic system · Economics · Futures contract · Geography · Global governance · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Normative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Public sphere · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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