By Badi M. Lenz

If Emery Reves did not indicate how we are to get from A to B -- in other words, how to actually achieve world government -- it is obviously up to us, world citizens wherever we live, to come up with ideas.

Thanks to the World Syntegrity Project, a catalog of useful and less useful proposals for the consideration of a future global legislature is evolving. However, syntegrators should also give thought to the immediate steps required, if a world legislature and world law are to come into being. The heads of our various commissions might join in this thinking process, and proposals might be communicated to the World Service Authority.

As coordinator of the World Forestry Commission, faced with the rapid disappearance of the planetŐs tree cover, I cannot help fearing that we are too late with our efforts, that our forests are doomed if we have to await a global government. Yet Emery Reves provides some hope with the dictum: "Democratic sovereignty of the people can be correctly expressed and effectively instituted if local affairs are handled by local government, national affairs by national government, and international, world affairs by international, world government." This clearly reminds us all that, while pushing for effective global control, we must demand responsible government on local and national levels.

Creating Political Will The subsidarity principle, as stated above, is a good one for world citizens to bear in mind and to repeatedly bring to the attention of political parties and individuals in government positions, especially to candidates standing for office. Let us constantly remind ourselves and others that local affairs require local government, national affairs require national government, world affairs require world government (with some overlaps, of course).

This awareness produces grassroots power, an essential element for generating political will. A well-directed political will is a combination of well-informed grassroots power and equally well-informed public-spirited institutions and authorities.

Coping with Unbridled

In Europe and in America, national governments are jointly building structures or institutions in the fields of common security, human rights and trade, practicing together the skills of consultation and collective decision-making. Organizations such as the European Union, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights can no longer be ignored by nation-states. Slowly but surely, nations are being prepared to operate responsibly and collectively in an evolving global order.

How to Govern the World
What contribution do we, as world citizens, expect from a future world government? How is it to function?

Undoubtedly, the legislature must produce a body of law that is limited to essentials. A world court, settling international disputes, must be supported by an effective enforcing power. But apart from that, I see the main function of world government as an educational one.

I visualize a world government presence on every national territory, perhaps in the shape of world high commissioners, able to advise governments and citizens in various fields of human activity, backed by a council holding its sessions in different places worldwide. I see these commissioners not so much as powerful functionaries, but rather as well-informed, wise men and women with maximum access to the media, relating a global vision to the local and national scene. They must operate under some world citizenship charter and must be world citizens in the true sense of the word. Their presence will do away with the need for embassies, consulates and other national missions, since it will provide the essential lubrication in international relations and thereby remove one of the constant causes of friction and clashes between nation-states.

Admittedly, many people fear that a world government will be remote and all powerful. We must make sure that such an institution will inspire trust and guarantee global security.

Badi M. Lenz is the coordinator of the World Government of World Citizens'World Forestry Commission.

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