The Natural Restrictions on Global Government

Dear Citizens of the World,

The problem with the United Nations is its powerlessness to enforce its resolutions without cooperation from its major members. Even if none of the permanent members of the Security Council use their veto, resolutions are virtually meaningless without strong support form the U.S, the Russian Federation, Europe or China.

Many of us are afraid to empower the UN as an independent entity with sufficient resources to enforce its own resolutions. The fear is that the UN will begin to meddle in domestic affairs and issues that should be none of its concerns. This fear is unreasonably exaggerated by knee-jerk tribalism. If the UN were to be transformed into a well constructed federation, unjust meddling would be easily prevented.

No federal government is ever completely divorced from its constituent members. The individuals that run a federal government are not emotionless beings without regional roots. The larger a federation is, the more true this becomes. As a federation grows, it has to draw from an ever wider pool of professionals to construct its work force. It can no longer rely on a small oligarchy of unquestionably loyal individuals.

Bureaucracies are often accused of being divorced from human reason and to operate according to their own inane mechanical rules. To some extent the accusations are warranted. But this is why we have to regionalize political representation in today's federal assemblies. Bureaucracies don't enact their own inane rules. They enact the inane rules of the legislatures to which they are accountable. Through regional representation and voting procedures, today's legislators are kept accountable to their local constituencies.

A large political unit, be it the Roman Empire, the Russian Federation or the Democratic Party in the United States, is always under the threat of being torn apart by regional rebellion. The threat of regional rebellion heavily limits how much a large political unit can interfere in the affairs of its constituent members. This is not to say interference never occurs. But nearly every time it does occur, it tears at the overall cohesiveness of the political unity. Often it threatens the existence of the political unit itself.


The issue of medical marijuana in the United States demonstrates how a federal entity cannot disregard the will of its constituent member even if it so desires. Yes, the DEA has time and again tried to enforce federal law and continues to harass individuals in states that have laws permitting the medical use of marijuana. But the DEA's actions have pitted them against many local officials on whom the DEA depends for the effectiveness of enforcing federal law. Regulated facilities that openly provide medical marijuana continue to operate in these states.

The medical marijuana issue has not threatened the Union itself, but it certainly has strained the federation. All human interaction is a tug-of-war between between wills. Any entity that cannot align its members within their intersecting spheres into a unified direction, eventually tears itself apart. A global government would be under the constant threat of dissolution, forcing it to step back and focus on narrow issues defined in its constitution.