Will there be a world government by the end of the 21st century?

Never, with all the chaos in the middle east!

I don’t know but it doesn’t seems like that bad of an idea. Imagine, all world citizens would be able to relocate wherever they wish without immigration hassles. Each and every world citizen will have all their health care and retirement expenses covered for life. People would have the opportunity to experience exotic cultures and be given equal consideration for job opportunies in their region of choice.. etc. Think about it.

Imagine being Emperor of the World. That’s a title I wouldn’t mind having…

Now where would the capital of Worldia be? The debate over that would probably last 1000 years. I vote for The Hague, Netherlands.

I don’t think it’s likely, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. Just because there would be a world government, doesn’t mean it would turn into 1984 or anything. It might actually help end poverty and war, who knows?

I highly doubt it.

I think that the world is going to be even more fractured.

It’s possible. Who would have thought, could have ever imagined in the mid-20th century, that there would ever be a united Europe?

Oh, I hope not.

The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that it is doubtful. One of the biggest obstacles to that goal is the irrational dogma of certain countries that such a government would be invariable a dicatorship or a tyranny. Another obstacle is the question whether certain countries will be willing to forfeit their manifest destiny dogma and their self ascribed entitlement to world leadership and instead accept a democratic 1 human, 1 vote system, which would automatically make them a minority among 7 milliard humans.

I hope so.

When most people talk about “World Government” they have some sinister conspiracy in mind, or something like the Empire from Star Wars. But, as @lillycoyote said, look at what happened to Europe. 60 years ago, all of Europe was at war, and millions upon millions of people were killed. Today most European countries have voluntarily joined a “European government.” They’ve done this because their economic and political interests, they realized, are tied together, and are non-zero sum.

The Internet and modern finance increasingly makes national boundaries obselete. Cultures are also diffuse. And in many ways national boundaries are a product of European colonialism to begin with. I think a world government could well emerge in the same way the EU emerged—by nations realizing that they have shared economic and political interests that need to be enforced by a greater sovereignty. And that would be a good thing.

@ragingloli Jeez, don’t tell those “certain countries” that they already are “a minority among 7 milliard humans.” The U.S. for example. The U.S. population represents only about 6% of the world population. And it’s quite a different world than it was in the 20th century. The sooner the U.S. realizes and accepts that this isn’t your grandfather’s _ Machtpolitik_, that in a world ruled by brute force and every nation for itself, rather than the rule of law, compromise and diplomacy… well, you do the math; those aren’t very good odds for us and the sooner we realize that the better off we’ll be.

@ragingloli, once the old people in America die off we’ll be in a better place re: feasibility of world government and most other things. I mean look at the demographic trends.

I highly doubt it, but I suppose that’s easy for me to say when things have always been the way they are ever since I can remember, at least since I was born.

Essentially, anything could happen.

Although an entire world government has never worked, and in the times that it has tried, it always collapsed upon itself. The same is bound to happen if it came up. People don’t wanna be ruled, and will fight back. We can’t even keep stable governments in one country from being defined by revolutions, civil wars or even political fuckery, so never mind the entirety of the world itself.

@Symbeline
A world government has never been even tried, so you can not say that it has never worked.

@Symbeline, everyone, with the exception of the people living in Somalia, are ruled by some sovereign government.

“People don’t wanna be ruled”
Explain then the popularity of groups with strong leader figures, religions, and cults.
Also, one of the reasons the Weimar Republic failed was that the people wanted the old monarchic Kaiserreich back, they wanted to be ruled and rejected democracy. That is also the reason why Hitler found so much support among the population.

@ragingloli Maybe, but you know what happened to him after he went for extended territory.

As a student of history, my impression is that the world is more fragmented, unstable, and ridden with conflict than it was a century ago, at the beginning of the twentieth century. So, it seems unlikely that another 90 years is going to bring about a unified global government.

@semblance, surely you are joking.

Who knows? Asking questions like these is a waste of time – you will not be able to find the answer until you can build a time machine. You are better off putting your brain to other uses.

@Qingu
Wasn’t that more or less a conflict between massive blocs, though? Now we have lots of dorky little countries that don’t like their neighbors.

@Nullo, can you elaborate on what you’re talking about? “Dorky little countries”?

@Qingu
Well, unless I’ve gotten my history wonky, France, the United Kingdom, and others still had several colonies covering large areas and encompassing many peoples, creating a sort of artificial homogeneity. Those colonies are gone now, and the people there have resumed their own governance. With the likely exception of India, those large masses were broken up into many smaller countries. Similarly, with the downfall of the Soviet Union, we had the onset (resurgence?) of the Stans.

“Dorky little countries” is a term that I – recalling a game of Carcassonne that none of you attended – thought was amusing.

No

In 2190 there might be a EU-style worldwide union comprising of about 80% of all countries relying on the federal principle with strong regional political bodies on the communal and state level.