World Government for Demographic Balance

World government has great utility beyond being a path to many ideals in political theory. It is also a practical solution to many of the world’s public policy problems. Its functional value is by itself sufficient to merit its establishment, and even those who disagree with the theoretical arguments must still give due consideration to this aspect. So far the literature and discussion has been too focused on a very narrow set of ideas, such as an excessive emphasis on Hegelian thought, and issues, such as world demilitarization. That is not to undermine their significance, but it is worth broadening the scope of the discourse to new areas where world unification is of relevance. One of the major policy issues of today where world unification holds great promise, but that has not yet been considered in the literature, is demographic balance.

It is all too obvious that the world’s population is severely disbalanced as of now, split as it is by national boundaries: some nations are experiencing extremely rapid population growth and have too youthful a population, while others face aging and declining populations. These disparities can be illustrated through some numbers: the median age ranges from 15 in Niger to 49 in Japan, the fertility rate from 6.7 in Niger to just 0.8 in South Korea, and population density from 1331 in Bangladesh to 2.2 in Mongolia (excluding tiny states). Similarly, there is a disbalance between skills in the workforce across the world – some places have an overabundance of skilled workers, leading to them having to perform below their potential, while in others there is a dearth. Even within specific fields or industries there can be significant disparities in the availability of suitable knowledge and talent, such as with engineering or IT.

In restricting the flows of people across the world, nations are only inflicting suffering upon themselves with these demographic imbalances. While their boundaries only worsen matters for them, they are retained merely for an imagined national identity and its territorial claims. It is telling, for example, how many countries with aging populations have turned so strongly against immigration that the desire to preserve a national identity is coming at a tremendous cost of decline. Already several countries have started experiencing these troubles to the point of crisis, and yet their very nature prevents them from pursuing the most evident and win-win solution there is—to allow people to migrate across the globe and allow a better equilibrium to be reached.

And it is not only states and their economies that are thus being hindered, but even individuals have to face sub-optimal opportunities and a lower quality of life because of this imbalance. Accessing employment opportunities or social services becomes much more difficult when there are too few or too many people, when the population is too young or too old, or when there is a shortage or surplus of certain skills. The heartbreaking stories of people undertaking treacherous journeys in search of a better life, and the struggles faced by those living in areas of disbalanced population, are all avoidable if we recognize the potential for a demographically balanced world.

As a whole humanity is much better balanced demographically than individual nations could be, with a median age of 30.6 and a fertility rate of 2.3. Overall, the world is set for several decades of population growth, but not explosive growth, in a much more stable and sustainable fashion than most nations face. Even as the population ages, we will still have enough young people to sustain the global economy going forward for a good while. By the time (or if) the population starts to become disbalanced (with UN projections showing a decline after the mid-2080s, and a median age of 42 by 2100), a world government will be much better equipped to address this on a global level and ensure balanced population flows to keep the economy and society running smoothly.

Balancing the world’s population is much needed to ease the strain on the earth’s natural resources caused by overpopulation. Even as there remains enough in the world for all human beings, it is its distribution which is uneven, and it is boundaries which make that problematic. Many parts of the world are overpopulated to the point that there is a crisis of even securing basic needs. Several large cities are struggling with water shortages, overcultivated land is turning barren, all while many areas lie relatively empty and could support a larger population. Further, demographic balance also enables better provision of public services and welfare. Too many or too few people, or a skewed economic or age distribution in the population, creates inefficiency and poses practical challenges in bringing services like education, healthcare, or social welfare programmes to the population. But with a more balanced population distribution across the globe, a world government can provide public services more efficiently (Fed. 10) and more accessibly.

But also significantly for the pursuit of global unity, demographically balancing the world under a world government will also help create a global community. As people distribute across the world, there will be more mixing of people across identity groups and diversity of exposure will increase. In the long run, this would be beneficial for reducing identity-nationalist sentiments and ultimately facilitating both the social and political integration of the world. Achieving demographic balance with a world government is thus not only key to better individual opportunities, economic growth, saving the environment, and improving governance, but also aids the process of unification itself.