The nation
state seem miniscule to address problems that the world faces today. We are in
a time where solutions could not be addressed within the national boundaries. The
problems the world faces today are similar to the problems Europe faced in the
18th century and during the Industrial Revolution. Unemployment,
social upheaval characterized Europe before the colonial campaigns for search
of livelihood. The solutions will not be colonialism but a new world governance
that is democratic, representative and no more or no less.
I will like to
share with you three viewpoints which I came across in the last twenty years as
a prelude to our topic of discussion about world governance. The first viewpoint
I would like to share is how the Netherlands prevented the fragmentation of
farmland below what it could sustain a single family. A Dutch gentleman once
shared me the experience of The Netherlands in addressing farmland
fragmentation many centuries ago. He said that once the land property reached
undividable stage, through applying standard for its capacity to support a
family, only a single offspring was entitled to inherit the land/estate. If a
family had three children, one of the children will inherit the land and the
other two have to go as soldiers or priests to the colonies or participate in
the colonial campaign.
Europe and USA
with a low birthrate and booming economy have avoided the menace of farm land
fragmentation in the twentieth century. China has addressed the problem through
the one-child policy.
The second viewpoint I like to share with you is what you
might have heard from the mass media but which I like to remind you before we
discussed the issue of world governance. The financial crisis in developing
countries is pushing some unemployed people to look for work in the less
developed countries or their former colonies. People in the less developed
countries migrate to the developed countries in search of work. The migration
is for looking professional employment in the first case and daily labor
employment in the latter. The future of world governance may rationalize,
standardize and facilitate the movement of goods and people.
The third impressive development I witnessed in Ethiopia.
In the highlands, the fragmentation of the miniscule land through inheritance
to many descendants has made farming in smallholdings impracticable. The
country has vast uncultivated land but cannot pass it to people from the
highlands because of the land ownership law. Thus, Ethiopia tries to address
its food problem by giving big tract of lands to foreign farmers. It tries to
create non-agricultural employment for its unemployed and underemployed
population through the informal sector. The distribution of land to foreigners
is but condemned by human right watchers as land grab. The idea is a reminiscent
of the nation-state mentality.
I raised the three points in order to show the complexity
of solutions to the problems the world faces at this point in time. All the
three cases were nation-state driven. We are in a time where solutions could
not be addressed within the national boundaries. There is a need to venture
more than what the Dutch did centuries ago, the labor migrants of the modern
world and think outside of the ‘nation-state-box’.
A. The Rationale for Globalization
1. As we said
above, the problems the world faces today are similar to the problems Europe
faced in the 18th century and during the Industrial Revolution.
Unemployment, social upheaval characterized Europe before the colonial
campaigns for search of livelihood. The instrument for such expansion was the
nation-state. The powers may clash against each other but their search for
livelihood, market and raw materials were common to all of them. A nation state
in today’s world could not sustain its population livelihood at the expense of
other nations and people like the one during colonialism and empire expansion. A
win-win approach amongst nations and people is to everybody’s benefits. If we
take global problems "of nuclear war, traffic in armament, erosion of
human rights, the international debt crises, worsening poverty in the
underdeveloped world, international terrorism, over population, environmental
pollution, and the militarization of space ...’’ the solution for the problems needs global
approaches and mechanisms.
2.
The
rational for globalization is the possibility of joint developments among and
between nations. The building of infrastructures, the opening up of economic
sectors in less developed countries could be done through joint effort of the
developed and the developing nations. The people of both nations will be
beneficiaries. Employment will be created for all of them. People will move from
one corner of the world to the other for joint economic development and not for
colonial domination and exploitation. This is not a new idea. It is an idea
which its time has reached to be taken seriously. From the World federalists
the Chicago Committee, more radically, provided for an extensive bill of rights
and duties, a broad grant of powers, a world planning agency, and a clause
permitting public purchase of business that had acquired the "extension
and character of a transnational monopoly" (Bratta ibid; 8-9). The
Minister of Development Mr. J Pronk during his address in Salon de ideas on
November 1, 1991 forwarded a 14 points agenda, which suggested the
establishment of an economic Security Council under the UN like the Security
Council.
3. The developed countries could not address
their financial crisis and unemployment by employing their population in
renewal of their infrastructure without triggering hyperinflation because of
national currencies that are limited in scope. To address the problem there is
a need for global understanding on the convertibility of all currencies to a
single standard.
4. The sustenance
of the national framework has made the application of measures to hasten youth
employment by decreasing working hours and decreasing the years for getting
pension scheme had proved impossible in the developed world. In the contrary measures are being taken to
increase the age requirements for pension schemes. Unemployment anywhere has to
be addressed globally than nationally.
B. The possibility of Global Economic and Social
Well-being
1. Developments
in the last two centuries have created conditions where people could freely
move and countries cooperate for development. The United Nations systems, the
different regional associations work to realize the economic and social
well-being of the population of the whole world.
2. Technologically
it is possible to open new areas for development through infrastructure
building, inducing technological and scientific application in modern farming
and industry which if done concomitantly could lead to universal
industrialization and urbanization and world governance.
3. Politically,
after the end of the Cold War, it was possible for USA to mobilize the whole
world for a new governance where the UN grew into a world parliament with full
power based on international constitution where every country would be subject
to the an international constitution and judged in international court. That
opportunity seemed lost in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and the 8 big and the 20 big ‘’persons’’ paradigms. The failure
was starkly shown when consideration of the big eight and the big twenty powers
was forwarded and a security council with twenty members was considered as a democratic practice. It was
not different from the cartoon by Sir David Low about the chair for five big
persons while the three was occupied drawn to show the injustice of the 5
security council member structure in the aftermath of the Second World War. The
chair for twenty big persons will also be undemocratic and a characteristic of
an alliance of empires.
4. An opportunity
will come again as it had happened after the Second World War and the end of
the Cold War. We should not lose that opportunity. We should get prepared for
that opportunity.
C. The way forward
1. A new world
order is the only way out for solving the crisis the world is facing at
present. The economic problem is very threatening. It is disturbing more than
the fear of atomic annihilation during the Cold War.
2.
The
new world order has to unleash the slumbering developmental possibility that
could be comparable to what the industrial society did during its rise
centuries before. "The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and
more colossal productive forces than have all preceding
generations together’’ (Marx). The new world governance based on international
standards, international constitution and courts can take humanity to a new
level of prosperity and bliss by opening employment opportunities for all and
through reconstruction and
infrastructure development and scientific advancement.
3.
The
way forward should not be a repetition of what happened in the aftermath of the
Second World War. David Low’s cartoon of the time has depicted what happened to
the League of Nations and the newly created United Nations when the idea of
world governance based on federalism and egalitarian principles gave way to a
national and group competition.
4.
Wars,
upheavals, revolutions do not lead to democracy and world governance as it was
proved in history and as we are witnessing in the Arab springs and the
different battlegrounds in the name of democracy. The way for democratization
is through the democratization of workplace and the larger society.
5.
The
best guarantee for democratic development is the economic development, social
advancement in legality, freedom, dignity and most of all sustained peace and
social accountability of citizens’ and government to the welfare of all and
each citizen. The individual citizen should be encouraged to stand for his
right and for the right of others before legal courts and public places. Legality will better lead to democratic
practices than illegality and uprisings.
You could visit the authors page
https://www.amazon.com/author/ethiopiannovelist
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