ABSTRACT
To the extent that the vast majority of people in the world come to see themselves as citizens of the world mobilized in an array of movements, it is conceivable that they might be able to construct a workable and democratic world government. In the past, there have been movements for world government such as the "United World Federalists" whose primary aim was peace. Ever since the Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648, the hegemonic countries of the capitalist world have for the most part tried to organize themselves into sovereign states whose rule within their boundaries is not to be interfered with by other states. Eventually the "sovereign" state was to become wherever possible a "nation-state". Many academics focus on what they see as the positive advances of "multilateralism" and the degrees of "international governance", which already exist among some nation-states.
