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World government


World government is the notion of a common political authority for all of humanity, yielding a global government and a single state that exercises authority over the entire Earth. Such a government could come into existence either through violent and compulsory world domination, or through peaceful and voluntary supranational union.

There has never been nor is there currently a worldwide executive, legislature, judiciary, military, or constitution with global jurisdiction. The United Nations is limited to a mostly advisory role, and its stated purpose is to foster cooperation between existing national governments rather than exert authority over them.

The idea and aspiration of world government is known since the dawn of history. Bronze Age Egyptian Kings aimed to rule "All That the Sun Encircles", Mesopotamian Kings "All from the Sunrise to the Sunset", and ancient Chinese and Japanese Emperors "All under Heaven". These four civilizations developed impressive cultures of Great Unity, or Da Yitong as the Chinese put it. In 113 BC, the Han Dynasty in China erected an Altar of the Great Unity.

The Greek Stoic School preached one monarch over all mankind.

Polybius expressed one Government over the Mediterranean world as the "marvelous" achievement of Fortune and the main task of Historian is to explain how she did it.

The ideal of world government outlived the fall of the Pax Romana for a millennium. Dante in the fourteenth century despairingly appealed to the human race: "But what has been the condition of the world since that day the seamless robe [of Pax Romana] first suffered mutilation by the claws of avarice, we can read—would that we could not also see! O human race! what tempests must need toss thee, what treasure be thrown into the sea, what shipwrecks must be endured, so long as thou, like a beast of many heads, strivest after diverse ends! Thou art sick in either intellect, and sick likewise in thy affection. Thou healest not thy high understanding by argument irrefutable, nor thy lower by the countenance of experience. Nor dost thou heal thy affection by the sweetness of divine persuasion, when the voice of the Holy Spirit breathes upon thee, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (De Monarchia, 16:1)


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