Why a World State is inevitable: Anarchy and the Logic of Recognition

Why a World State is inevitable: Anarchy and the Logic of Recognition

By Alexander Wendt

ABSTRACT
In the past 3000 years there has been an exponential reduction in the number of independent polities in the world system. this paper argues that this process will continue until there is only one state left, that a world state is inevitable. The argument is explicitly teleological, and based on a neo-Hegelian interpretation of the logic of anarchy. A scientific teleology can be extracted from self organization theory, which combines micro-level dynamics with Macro-level boundary conditions to explain developmental trajectories. The state is then defined as a legitimate monopoly on organized violence grounded in mutual recognition. At the micro-level the struggle drives the process of world state formation. At the macro level anarchy structures this struggle, generating a tendency for war to become increasingly costly. The resulting teleology moves through five stages, each responding to the instabilities of the one before: a system of states, a society of states, world society, collective security, and the world state.

Continue to read:
http://www.civitatis.org/pdf/wstate.pdf