The birth of a new public governance

We are witnessing the birth of a new worldwide community
The globalization of communications, of the economy, of techniques, strengthen the unity of the human race while increasing its inequalities. This very community has become the melting pot of fears, of uncertainty, of hope for people of the world, for their feelings, their dreams, and their struggles for life.

Those populations become increasingly aware of their belonging to that community - their paces are different and proportional to their degrees of modernization. The walls marking the frontiers collapse, and those between languages shorten as the quest of multilingualism goes forward. This new feeling of solidarity, of belonging to a worldwide unity, goes along with new fears about one's future and security, along with all the tensions entailed by the overwhelming and painful sight of the abyss between the Rich and the Poor. However, it also arouses both the feeling of being part of the amazing current evolution, and a strong humanitarian sensibility as regards the misery in the world. And the hope that technical and scientific progress will help diminishing the tragedy of Life.

Citizens of the world
When Gary Davis appealed to the idea of a worldwide citizenship, in 1948, it was seen as pure utopia. Socrates once said : "I am not a citizen of Athens nor a citizen of Greece. I am a citizen of the world". One would like to argue today that he was in fact all of this at the same time! One may see the reality of a European citizenship, added to the national and regional citizenships, without replacing them. Moreover, feelings of African, Asian, American and Latino American citizenship are also expanding. All the post-war periods made countries that were formerly fighting all over the world gather, and their governments are now to be found in worldwide peaceful organizations. But it hasn't been long since Europe was cut in two by the Iron Curtain and the Wall of Berlin. It was the time of the cold war, and of the economic, political and ideological competition dividing the communist countries - China, the USSR - and the western countries, on the verge of wreaking havoc in the whole
world. The time of great gatherings has come.

A duality that still needs to be overcome
The major difficulty is to reconcile Patriotism with globalization, and not to oppose them anymore. We must not overlook the role played by the States, which are the cores of our institutions, traditions and culture, and we have to prevent them from being dominated by the trend of globalization. The heads of states that will understand this balance and that will let their people know about it - explaining to them what's worth taking from globalization, and the solidarity ensued from it - will be the ones to
mark History.

What's new with globalization is the switch from interdependence and international or regional solidarity to an intercontinental dimension. This opening up towards the other continents has increased throughout the centuries. It took time to discover them, then to become aware of the variety of their populations, before being able to spread a worldwide knowledge of the great ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, of Latin, Arabic and Asian countries. The trade of spices, of silk, of gold and silver was the first economic process leading to the communication between peoples and continents. This feeling of international community got richer with the spreading
of religions, in spite of their rivalry. It was harshly harmed by the conquests, by slavery and by numerous wars. It re-emerges when worldwide events take place.

A positive mutual reflection
This gathering of all the men of the planet has a more meaningful origin than stated by the french Jesuit, thinker and palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in his books - Le phénomène humain (The French phenomenon, 1955), and L'avenir de l'homme (The future of man, 1959). The biological tendencies are leading to the expanding of the species and to the multiplication of the bonds between its elements affecting Manhood, of which he was forecasting the demographic growth and the multiplications of its interconnections He was fully aware of the true meaning of that evolution,
as he wrote : "The further you go into that urgent and fundamental question of the development of a spiritual cohesion within the Human race, the more you realize that the final solution of that problem is not to be looked for in some mere general elevation of the level of life, but in the merging process done from within, on the multitude of thinking beings, by the ultimate core of their mutual
reflection".

The feeling of belonging to that community finds its origin in four different domains : in the economic interdependency, in a daily visual piece of news coming from each continent, in human solidarity and in a lively access to each culture. It coexists with the singularity of filiations, specifying each one of us as a subject of action, of speech, of desire.

Interactive economy
The economic interdependency affects the populations of the world on two fundamental aspects: employment and energy. A number can be put on it with the soaring rise of International trade whose volume is due to attain more than 50.000 billion dollars before 2030. It can currently be valued at 13.000 billion dollars. The level of employment is linked to the volume of agricultural exports, to the industry, and to services. If the populations benefit from worldwide competition and from the switch towards a mass market economy throughout the spectacular fall of some prices, they still have to make
enough living out of their job to enjoy it.

There are three factors affecting employment: Technical evolution, both creating and killing jobs; international competition, marked by the differences in social rights and in payments, by the levels of training, by the disposal of modern infrastructures, favouring the localisations of activities; and, eventually, the international economic growth, inevitable in order to satisfy consumers and to favour employment. They are all so different according to what continent you're referring to that they create important and justified worries in each population, whether it be the one of developed countries, worried by unemployment and delocalisation, or the population of developing countries, because of their difficulty to adapt to a modern economy.

We are currently witnessing a quick displacement of the locations of industrial production, towards Asia - mostly China - with a massive number of new investments, attracted by its competitiveness and by the potential growth of their domestic markets.

This spectacular difference requires the creation of worldwide temporary, acceptable and justified rectifications, accompanying unavoidable adaptations such as the rise of payments and social rights in many countries, while preventing national policies of long lasting protectionism which would be contrary to the principles of a fair and stimulating competition.

The international economy is clearly dependent on the availability and the costs of energy, and can only react in a negative way when the price of oil barrels rises from 20 to 100 dollars. It shows all too well how much the world needs oil, and it requires measures and investments that bear in mind the forecasting of consumption and production of any kind of energy so that it ensures its availability
for the generations to come.

This international interdependency requires worldwide policies of research and investments, that need to be put into place under short periods for the elaboration of alternatives is due to take a lot of time.
The stock exchanges follow the same trends from Tokyo to Chicago, along with Frankfort, Zurich, London, Paris and New York. We know all too well that a trend from the Stock Exchange of New York has immediate effects on the other markets, and we can imagine the catastrophe a fall of its currency would entail for the international market.

A visual piece of news
The influence of the image over our way of thinking is fantastic, and whether it be consciously or not, Manhood is globalizing. They may not all feel it the same way, but mobile phones, computers, radios and televisions reach out towards billions of people in the most remote areas. It is hard to put a number on the daily amount of intercontinental communications, of mails between computers, of meetings and communications thanks to the internet.

Nevertheless, it clearly shows that all these agents are part of a new international proximity. Moreover, aerial transportation is permanently expanding, and the number of annual passengers has been multiplied by three in 25 years : They were 530 millions in 1975, and 1,650 billions in 2000.
This expenditure is due to be continued. It allows them, for their own enjoyment, or for their work, to become acquainted with the other continents.
This very diversity reminds us of the one of the planet and helps us

A planet of solidarity
The threats weighing over the planet, and the tragedies experienced, entail a feeling of international human solidarity. It had already existed, over short periods of time, in our societies, but the modern tendencies expand it and give it a new shape.
It doesn't mean, though, that it entailed a feeling of community. It is only its' starting point. One has to go further in knowledge, in experience and in reflection in order to discover how genuine and
strong it is.

Regional Regroupings : The European Model
The first step towards globalization is the one of the gathering of regions. Universal awareness needs the feeling of a belonging to a regional community, and this has been proved all throughout History. These communities usually never reach the dimension of a continent. The case of America, divided into North and South, is the most obvious one. China and India have such a dimension that they should not be assimilated to other Asian countries. During the 20th century, regional cooperation spontaneously gathered, either to avoid conflicts or to give each continent a political and economic dimension, so that he'd gain more power and be more competitive. That is precisely why many countries try and find mutual institutions.
The first ones to undergo this historical experience were the six European nations that signed the treaty entailing the European community for the Coal and Steel industry, in Paris, in 1951 (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg and Netherlands). 50 years later, after a regular and often difficult growth, Europe has managed, throughout several treaties, to achieve a political mutual cooperation which is organized and legitimized by democratic institutions for the 27 countries of the current EU.
The economic and social pattern of Europe can't cross the seas, and is not really attractive to other continents. It is all too linked to its culture, its History and its traditions. It involves too much consumption of natural resources. However its institutional, democratic and international system may be globalized. The treaty we are proposing was inspired by the treaty of Lisbon, which is currently being discussed, including, among others points, the fundamental principal of subsidiarity. It is all the more striking as in 1990, during the 45th meeting of the General Assembly of United Nations, George Bush, who was the president of the USA, said that the institutional model of the UN should be applied to the whole world.

Worldwide evolution throughout regroupings
We shouldn't ignore the regional institutions that are being put into place on the other continents, because a genuine and important evolution is also going on overthere, as regards institutional structures. It concerns the Asean, the African Union and its parliament, the North American ALENA, the American Common Market, the MCCA, the Mercosur and the Comity of Andean Nations, the CAN and its parliament and its exterior common fare for 60% of the custom barriers. It also concerns those South American entities looking towards a continental merging that may join the ALENA.
There've also been discussions likely to lead to a gathering of Korea, China, Japan and Russia into a North East Asian Union.

If all these regions had institutions as developed as Europe, and if they were spread on an important part of the globe, one could have been tempted to make them work directly together, without the intervention of the Nations. But it is not the case, and it would be better not to wait for it to happen. However, the establishment of unofficial yet regular communications between international and regional institutions must be planned. It is, by the way, organized through the UN, thanks to the putting into place of its 5 regional commissions whose work is not well-known.
On a world basis, appropriate funds should be put into place to overcome the worldwide challenges, alongside democratic institutions to regulate them and make them effective.

Current financings
The funding of development was achieved throughout three essential means:
- Public aid to development
- Loans and investments from the group of
the World Bank
- Private investments.
One shouldn't criticize the whole funding, because it brought substantial help. It enabled the creation of hospitals, of schools, of substructures, along with equipments for agriculture, trade, tourism and industrial development.
However, we can regret its insufficiencies, its inefficacity, its mistakes, and corruption, that is to say all the things we witnessed during all those years and that legitimized the putting into place of regulation and the questioning of the whole system, which is being currently discussed.
All of this entailed a number of debts which is not affordable for many countries because of their lack of resources and currencies, which are more numerous than their national product. Those debts are regularly complained about, and many attempts are made to achieve their reduction.

New ways to finance
The solutions we are advocating benefit from a double innovation :
- Make sure that the financial charges entailed by priority international projects are taken from the borrowings of the Worldwide community, and not only from the states where the projects are put into place. It would be a strong proof of the solidarity and of the interdependency that unite them. It will become possible throughout the possibility for this community to make investments and borrowings, once given a legitimate juridical existence, along with democratic institutions fit to make decisions and to control the putting into practice of projects.
- Complete, or even replace, the public help for development with a multilateral tax system. It would enable the replacement of those punctual uneven and insufficient donations by regular resources, which would be substantial and controlled, without it being a burden for the economic activities of the countries.
- Take over the concept of the Marshall Plan throughout the establishment of credits of equipments and acquisitions for the businesses from developing countries, which would thus be given the opportunity to gain the knowledge and means needed to develop. The OECD, which had already been created for that purpose, could be the administrator of that project.

The recourse to international taxation should be essential. The Tobin (1) tax, with a very low rate on many financial operations, had many assets. But its creator himself recognized it could not be applied as those fund transfers which are usually realized throughout computers, could not be tracked. Unfortunately, this Tobin dream, waved over by anti globalization people, delayed the projects of an International taxation which has always been resented by the USA, so much that they kept on preventing any discussion about it during International meetings.

The easier tax to collect would be one on gas and oil production. It would be collected-as-you-earn, so much that it wouldn't be that painful and more efficient. When we realize the price of the oil barrel kept changing according to the Market, going from 20 to 100 dollars, for a prime cost generally between 2 and 15 dollars, it is obvious that a 2 dollars charge per barrel would not be felt by consumers and would yield almost 60 billion dollars per year as the current level of production is one of 80 billion barrels per day. This amount of money would be sufficient to cope with the objectives
of the new millennium.

A tax on energy could go beyond gas and oil, and also concern the nuclear energy, without affecting more energies like coal or hydro electricity which are more difficult to put a number on. It would thus entail the advocating of the development of other sources of energy that would thus become more competitive. And, even if those taxes might lead to the increasing of the price of the energy, is this something we should regret, when considered the rarefaction that's been forecasted? We could also imagine taxes on international, or, even better, intercontinental trade, starting with weapon exportation, and the sea or aerial transportation of its products, that may be limited to certain products and countries. It could be charged, on the level of importation, thanks to a system of custom barriers. Again, the low rate in comparison with the high amount of money involved would never lower the growth of international trade nor entail the establishment of new protectionisms.

A new democratic international governance
We are witnessing new practices of international governance lead by the UN and some financial institutions of the World Bank. Essential meetings have been organized at the level of the Heads
of States, like the G8, and we wish they were more numerous, more developed, and more widely spread, encompassing smaller and more medium nations from all over the world. However, their structure, which was formerly designed in order to be unofficial, is now an event that has become wider and much more mediatized, and that can no longer respond to the worries of the people, nor to the need to make decisions. In the light of this, how come we still want to create a new institution? It is harder to modify an already existing institution than to create a new one.
In 1999, Madeleine Albright, who was then Secretary of State of the USA, reckoned it and advocated the establishment of a worldwide alliance of Democracies. She was inspired by the book by Jim Huntley called Pax America (1988) whom proposed a "union of democracies" which would have America as origin. The General Secretary of the UN, Kofi Annan, answered that question when he said, in Whitehall, alongside the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair: " The world needs a forum where decisions would be made in common, and that would serve as a means of action" (February 2005).
The UN only has powers of intervention as regards security in its very Security Council. Let us remember that the Charter only confided the role of ensuring worldwide peace to 5 permanent members and to 10 members with mandates that last several years.

In the same spirit, a body dealing with the other aspects of global issues - economic, social, humanitarian and environmental ones - should be created. A new treaty should put into place institutions comparable to those of the European Union, that is: a Global council, a Parliamentary Assembly, a Commission and a Head of Ministers. It should get inspired from the European essential practices such as the principle of subsidiarity, a vote system and a national representation that would be well-balanced, and the commitment of national parliaments.
It should be proposed by several heads of states, and put into practice when approved by a minimum of 15 countries, from three different continents, the population of which would have to be over
a billion inhabitants. The total number of the countries funding this international community should not exceed 25 in the first ten years. They would be in charge of putting into place those precise institutions and to gather up their efforts to achieve the objectives considered as being a priority.

The organization of such a body should learn from the flaws of the system of the UN. Its institutions shall be more democratic and participative, which is precisely what is enabled by a Parliamentary Assembly, which would be the major and essential innovation as regards international decision making. It includes the putting into place of financial means that would be sufficient to make its interventions concrete, whether it be throughout worldwide taxation or loans that would have become possible thanks to the acknowledgment of its juridical body.

What about the future of this project?
It will depend on how it will be considered by one or several heads of state or government that may have it studied, discuss it, amend it, or propose it to other governments. It shall be a crucial test both
of their political view and of their good will to make worldwide institutions evolve because they will have become aware of their essential role.
In parallel to that, it will be spread so that it creates discussions, proposals, and will eventually appeal to politicians, NGOs and the public opinion. It will be essential to mobilize good will, alongside the strength of conviction and pressure of all those who, throughout the world, share the same vision of global issues, and the same feeling that the remedies proposed won't
be sufficient.
The anarchists and ultra nationalists are likely to oppose this project, and we will have to make them aware of the reach of such a project, without, however, hoping to convince those
active minorities.

Let's eventually evoke the ratification of the treaty in the countries the governments of which will have shown their agreement. It will imply the vote of national parliaments, asserting the democratic
feature of the treaty, even though they will no longer be able to amend it as the treaties will be submitted to a negative or positive vote after the ratification by the heads of state. It would thus be better if consultations were planned in the countries that would be likely to commit to that treaty before this last step is reached.

The great demographic, ecologic and economic tendencies will go on, but with corrections likely to avoid the happening of their dreadful consequences. The putting into place and the functioning of the necessary structures for the creation of a good global governance will enable the fulfilment of a sustainable and fair development that will entail the improvement of our Worldwide community.