I’m opposed. These are my premises:
- Systems are naturally hierarchical.
- Hierarchy emerges from systems as complexity increases.
- Higher-order systems emerge from lower-order systems.
- When a system becomes unstable and collapses, what collapses first are the highest order systems and the collapse stops when the instability disappears.
- Higher-order systems, therefore, depend on lower-order systems for their existence.
Contemporary federalism is the opposite. Federalism is a higher order system that delegates existence downward. Higher-order systems only exist to serve lower-order systems. Federalism done correctly would result in a system much like the UN but without the security council, but ALSO it would be something done after contemporary Westphalian states collapsed to lower-order structures and built their own “nation-state” federal system in the same way - lower-order systems producing the higher-order system to serve them.
When systems are not serving the needs of the systems below them in complexity, they are unstable and ultimately will collapse. In this way, we know that the current organization of Westphalian states is unstable because each contemporary nation-state is failing to meet the needs of the lower-order systems that comprise them - communities. And many of those communities in the Western world are failing to meet the needs of the lower-order systems that comprise them - persons (which includes all plants, animals, and the environment). Until communities serve the persons that comprise them, those communities are unstable. Until nation-states serve the communities that serve the persons, those nation-states are unstable. Any federalist system that emerges from these conditions will be unstable. The higher we build, the more catastrophic the collapse will be. Instead we must work to create the conditions under which communities will emerge to serve all of the persons that comprise them, while simultaneously creating the conditions under which nation-states devolve slowly so that room for change is possible.
Only when the persons are served by their communities will federalism become stable, and not until. World federalism too early will result in significant catastrophe, and world federalism built on Western principles will result in global catastrophe at all levels and it will happen quickly.