Chapter 6: The Idea of the World Commomwealth
6.2. From ethnic self-determination to human co-determination
If there is any legitimate concern about the concept of a stateless world, it is that the denial of sovereign states will undermine the right of ethnic self-determination. The idea of ethnic self-determination is certainly effective as an ideology of resistance to imperialism and has historical significance. However, the concept of "ethnic group" is inherently vague and is subdivided into countless numbers, so the mathematical formula of "one ethnic group, one state" does not hold.
As a result, every country in the world has multiple ethnic groups within it, and in every country, ethnic conflicts, discrimination against ethnic minorities, and issues of secession and independence have erupted, which have become the cause of civil wars and terrorism in quite a few countries. One aspect of the cause of the war on terror, which is currently an urgent international issue, is the runaway ethnic self-determination movement.
Here too, a change in thinking is necessary. That is, from ethnic self-determination to human co-determination. Humanity is divided into multiple races and many ethnic groups, but as a biological species, it is one. And as far as we know at this point, human beings only live on Earth. If this is the case, then it is possible and necessary for all humankind to make joint decisions on the earth that we share. The World Commonwealth is the place for such joint decisions by all humankind.
However, the World Commonwealth does not literally bring the world together into one. In that respect, it differs from the concept of a "world federation." The concept of a world federation has long been advocated by the international World Federalist Movement.
This concept still retains the idea of conceiving the world as a single "country," in that it assumes the existence of sovereign states, conceives of an international organization called a "world federal government," and adopts a structure in which part of national sovereignty is transferred to the world federation.
In contrast, the World Commonwealth is a network organization for the world's people. However, when we say network, we do not mean a virtual space where the world's people simply communicate through developed means of transportation and communication, as in the so-called "global village" concept, but a network that has the substance of an administrative organization that also makes political decisions on a global scale.
The specific organization of this new world order will be discussed in the next chapter, but for now, a general image can be imagined as a more integrated and democratic redesign of the current United Nations structure.
However, the new world order would be made up of Zones that are granted autonomous administrative powers over a wider geographical area than current sovereign states, and each Zone would not have exclusive territory. Moreover, each Zone is not an ethnic unit, but merely a governing organization established solely on the basis of geographical unity for administrative convenience. Therefore, the incorporation or rearrangement of parts of a Zone would be possible more flexibly than in a sovereign state.
👉The table of contents so far is here.
👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.
