WORLD GOVERNMENT
ARTHUR MOORE
WORLD GOVERNMENT can come about in two ways, and be
of two forms.
The first way is by conquest, 2nd in such an event the
form would probably be a unitary Government.
The second way would be by agreement between
sovereign states to delegate some of their sovereign powers
to a world state, the Government of which would thereafter
derive its mandates from the sovereign will of the people
of the world. The form in such an event would be a
federal Government.
The first way has been the dream of conquerors through-
out the ages. Alexander, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan,
Timurlane, Napoleon, Hitler have all dreamt this dream.
None achieved the reality, though several became the domi-
nating figures in the known world. None left a kingdom
or empire which was not rent with war or divided up im-
mediately after the conqueror's death. The last two
would-be conquerors, Napoleon and Hitler, met defeat; one
died a prisoner, the other by his own hand.
Religion as well as military glory has inspired dreams of
world conquest, the aim being to set up a theocracy. Some
such idea underlay the Cthristian Crusades which covered
a period of two hundred years and led kings to 'take the
Cross', The Crusades had their opposite number in the
Khilafat and the Arab-Turkish combination which overran
Northern Africa and Spain, entered France and Italy, and
later conquered Eastern Europe, and carried Islam to the
gates of Vienna.
The idea of world government by conquest is not dead,
but the military glory phase and the theocratic phase seem
to be yielding place to an 'ideological* phase. Many now
advocate and work for a world dictatorship and claim that