ABSTRACT
The problems of world politics are not entirely resolvable, and we can’t subscribe to ‘the end of politics’ any more than the end of history or the end of philosophy. So world politics involves ‘coping’ with the situation, and the manner in which this is done is best understood in terms of ‘conformity’. This is the case whether politics is taken to be a potentially accommodating, benevolent, emancipatory and peaceful process, or an agonistic open-ended contestation, malevolent, subjugating and conflictual. Whether world politics is viewed positively as collective choice in light of a common future, or more negatively as struggle in light of intractable differences set in the past, the uncertainties require a coping mechanism. Conformity describes the process, either way: whether establishing a consensus on the substance of a shared future, or acknowledging the framework of competition or conflict. If there is little prospect of perfect consensus, there is also little prospect of meaningless chaos. Coping takes many forms, not all positive, but all in reference to patterns of conformity; for or against, limited or extensive. Hence conformity can be seen to act in support of coping, rather than displacing or resolving the need to cope, and while institutionalization has risks there is ample scope for collective action in support of individual purposes.
