University of Miami Law Review Volume 3 Number 4 Article 3 6-1-1949 The Approach to World Government Through the Technique of the World Constitutional Convention: American Experience John Davenport Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr Recommended Citation John Davenport, The Approach to World Government Through the Technique of the World Constitutional Convention: American Experience, 3 U. Miami L. Rev. 500 (1949) Available at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol3/iss4/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE APPROACH TO WORLD GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE TECHNIQUE OF THE WORLD CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE JOHN H. DAVENPORT* Ever since the beginning of the Atomic Era when embryonic world citizens and decaying nationalists alike were afforded convincing proof that the World would be either One or None, there have been efforts in the United States and elsewhere to make a peaceful and lawful transition to One World rather than a violent transition to No World. While thvse efforts have concerned education and publicity in the broadest sense, there have also been proposals to effect the legal changes which would make world government a reality. The four major lines of action which have been canvassed and are being followed, none necessarily exclusive of the others are: (1) Popular referenda and polls on the question of the desirability of world government; (2) Diplomatic negotiation by the President or his representatives to establish world government by treaty agreement among nations; (3) Amendment of the United States Constitution to provide for the entry of the United States into a world federation; (4) Election of delegates to a world constitutional convention by the people of the United States. It is the writer's view that the first approach, while useful for publicity purposes, is futile from a legal standpoint; that the second is unconstitutional; that the third is unnecessary; and that the fourth line of action is difficult. The difficulties are of a practical nature only and are outweighed by the prestige of this approach in the American tradition. It is believed that much light can be shed on the solution of the practical problems involved in. this fourth method by the rich and varied precedents in American experience since 1775 or even earlier. I NTRODUicTION The idea of world government is not a new one. Ever since Alexander the Great, men have dreamed of establishing government over the world as they knew it. Even the idea of world federal government is not new. The empires established by Alexander and Caesar were loose confederations which did not attempt to disturb local customs and loyalties, though Hitler, latest in the line of the Caesars, went far in destroying or degrading the cultural * Instructor in Government, University of Miami. 500 WORLD GOVERNMENT diversity of the countries he conquered. Stalin, by contrast, realizes that world conquerors must maintain large degrees of national autonomy, and should he forget this important political truth, there is always a Tito or a General Mao Tse-Tung to remind him. What is new in the history of ideas is the notion of democratic federatiou of the world. And in the realm of practical. application of ideas, it is only as old as the United States Constitution, which begins significantly enough. "We, the People, ... do ordain and establish this Constitution." This was, it is true, only a small scale "world" federation-taking in only the New World and not all of that-but it was a model for later federations. It was, as Carl Van Doren has called it, "the Great Rehearsal' for world federation. It established patterns and precedents, not to be religiously mimicked, but to be used as suggestions for the political imagination, analogies, and as vicarious experience. If the Constitution of the United States was not as democratic in substance or form as it might have been, at least it established firmly the idea of popular sovereignty, leaving to later generations by interpretation and practice to approach closer the democratic ideal. By contrast, the blueprint for world federation advanced by Communist theory establishes a hierarchy of mankind in which Communist Party members occupy the highest position and the hated bourgeoisie the lowest. "All men are created equal," according to Jefferson's deathless version of Locke in the Declaration of Independence. This states a present fact and holds before us an ideal classless society toward which to strive. But the classless society of the Communist is one which can be achieved only by exterminating one of the classes and ruling the other for an indefinite period of history. And until the day when the one is exterminated completely and the other has learned to govern itself to the satisfaction of its Party Rulers, the pattern of Communist society is a triplex one of elite (members of the Party) masses or majority (the proletariat) and oppressed minority (the bourgeoisie). Both distinctions are abhorrent to the idea of democratic world federation. A democratic world federation could not stand if it were based on a distinction between members of the elite and the masses -the core of democratic doctrine is that all men have the same nature and that virtue is not the monopoly of any elite, whether it be an elite of power, of intellect, or of wealth. No more could a world federation be democratic if the rights of all men, regardless of their economic status, were not resoected and protected. The idea of democratic world federation is based the' czire on these two fundamental assumptions: that one man is or can be as fit to rule or as good as another, and that minorities must be protected in their human rights no less than majorities. At the same time it must be recognized in all candor that in no national state today are these fundamental assumptions embodied p'-fectly in practice. MIAMI LAW QUARTERLY In other words there is a gap between practice and ideal. Ifthe gap between ideal and reality is-to be bridged in the creation of a world constitution and a democratic world federation, therefore, we must make a third assumption. This is that every extant national state must be left free to determine how the question of ratification of a world constitution shall be decided, according to its own constitution and political forms. In other words, while a world constitution must be based explicitly on the assumption of the demo- cratic equality of all men and must guarantee their human rights, its actual entry into force must be conditioned on the existent political realities, which nowhere approximate the ideals of the constitution.1 This necessity was recog- nized by the Founding Fathers of the United States Constitution when they provided for its ratification by states whose constitutions and local customs were so diverse as those of Massachusetts and South Carolina, or Rhode Island and Maryland. This article will not argue the desirability of a greater degree of world law and order under a world federation. Rather, it will be assumed that this is a generally recognized necessity, and addressed to the more practical and productive question of ways and means of achieving this goal in time to prevent a war which the atomic scientists and military technicians never tire of telling us will be little short of catastrophic for the civilization of the world.2 That this is a reasonable assumption to make might seem self-evident, but public opinion polls from time to time give fresh indications of the deep emotional conviction with which the ordinary citizen holds to the idea of world peace. The same polls, however, show evidence of much confusion and doubt about the means proposed to this end.3 It is therefore fair to assume that a more realistic question than the desirability of world government is that of just how such a government is to be established and what are to be its character- istics beyond those previously mentioned. It is necessary therefore to add one more assumption to those already mentioned, This is the assumption that the characteristics of any world government which would be desirable must represent the will and reason of 1. COMMITrEE TO FRAME A WORLD CONSTITUTION DOCUMENT No. 4, CONSIDERATIONS RELEVANT TO THE DEFINITION OF WORLD FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 6 (Chicago 1946) (Washington: American Council on Public Affairs, microfilm ed. 1948), p. 22. Hereafter cited as CFWC. 2. See DEXTER MASTERS AND KATHERINE WAY, ONE WORLD OR NONE (New York, 1946). Following the first shock, the last year has seen a new crop of books on the subject, e.g., LAPP, MUST WE HIDE? (Boston, 1949) ; BLACKETr, FEAR, WAR AND THE BOMB (N. Y., 1949); DAVID BRADLEY, No PLACE TO HIDE (Boston, 1948). A review of Lapp appears in U. S. News, April 29, 1949, p. 11. 3. Fortune, March 1944, pp. 94, 98. When the question, "Do you think the United Nations should be strengthened to make it a world government with power to control the armed forces of all nations, including the United States?" was put to voters with opinions on the question in Holland, Sweden and the U. S. A., Americans voted nearly 2 to 1, the Dutch more than 2 to 1, and the Swedes more than 3 to I in favor of the proposal, according to a news release of the AMERICAN INSTITUTF oF PUBLIC OPINION (Gallup), December 24, 1947.