"For the first time in history, a complex, tightening web of interdependence unites all humanity into a single world system." The Blue Marble—Earth as seen by Apollo 17 in 1972. Public domain.The existing system of international law and intergovernmental institutions is not up to the global-scale decision-making necessary for the shared risks of the twenty-first century. A great transition toward a socially just and environmentally sustainable world order will require both revisiting discussions about a federal world government and asserting the necessity of its democratic nature.
READ MORE: The world's citizens need to take back control
Only a world parliament can provide the democratic legitimacy and the planetary perspective required for developing world law. The creation of this new institution will depend on a reciprocal relationship between the cultivation of a sense of global citizenship, the spread of democratisation at the national level, and bold statements by social movements that the time has come for democratic world government.
