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On the performance of the International polity*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Oran R. Young
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Extract

Evaluative statements concerning the performance of the international polity diverge dramatically from one another. On the one hand, there are those whose views border on the apocalyptic. They assert that the performance of this political system is imacceptably poor and that the international polity is currently headed toward catastrophe. They are convinced that the existing international political system cannot be reformed, a conclusion that implies the necessity of repudiating the existing system. Therefore, it is not surprising that those who hold such views are prominently associated with calls for a new world order. At the same time, many students of international affairs have views concerning the performance of the international polity which border on the complacent. The adequacy of the performance of this political system is often tacitly assumed. Such views are not uncommon even among those who are active in various reformist movements at the level of domestic politics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , October 1978 , pp. 191 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1978

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References

page 191 note 1 For a selection of essays belonging to this genre see Mendlovitz, Saul H. (ed.), On the Creation of a Just World Order (New York, 1975).Google Scholar

page 191 note 2 Many of the essays appearing in Foreign Affairs exemplify this orientation.

page 192 note 1 I treat the international polity as an analytic subsystem of the overall international social system. For its part the overall international system belongs to the class of highly decentralized social systems.

page 195 note 1 A recent example is Anatol Rapoport, Conflict in Man-Made Environment (Harmonds-worth, 1974).Google Scholar

page 195 note 2 On the links between international violence and various forms of civil strife consult Rosenau, James N. (ed.), International Aspects of Civil Strife (Princeton, 1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 195 note 3 See Richardson, Lewis F., Statistics of Deadly Quarrels (Pittsburgh, 1960).Google Scholar

page 196 note 1 Rawls, John, A Theory ofJustice (Cambridge, 1971)Google Scholar; Nozick, Robert, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (New York, 1974)Google Scholar, and Hardin, Garrett, ‘The Survival of Nations and Civilizations’, Science, 172.Google Scholar

page 197 note 1 For a brief account of the empirical evidence consult Russett, Bruce M., Trends in World Politics (New York, 1965)Google Scholar, esp. Ch. 7.

page 197 note 2 See also Falk, Richard A., This Endangered Planet (New York, 1971).Google Scholar

page 198 note 1 For a non-technical discussion of the growing environmental problems at the domestic level see Commoner, Barry, The Closing Circle (New York, 1971).Google Scholar

page 198 note 2 See Young, Oran R., Systems of Political Science (Englewood Cliffs, 1968).Google Scholar

page 199 note 1 See Falk, op. cit. and Falk, Richard A., A Study ofFuture Worlds (New York, 1975).Google Scholar

page 200 note 1 Hartley, Shirley Foster, Population: Quantity vs. Quality (Englewood Cliffs, 1972).Google Scholar

page 201 note 1 Ibid.

page 202 note 1 For a general discussion of issues relating to the exploitation of natural resources, see Scott, Anthony, National Resources: The Economics of Conservation (Toronto, 1973):Google Scholar

page 204 note 1 Perhaps the most well-known recent formulation is Grenville Clark and Sohn, Louis B., World Peace Through World Law, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1960).Google Scholar

page 206 note 1 See Deutsch, Karl W., ‘Political Community at the International Level’, Doubleday Short Studies in Political Science (Garden City, 1954).Google Scholar

page 206 note 2 See, for example, Guerin, Daniel, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York, 1970)Google Scholar and Bookchin, Murray, Post-Scarcity Anarchism (New York, 1973)Google Scholar. Note that criticisms of government along these lines are also becoming increasingly popular in various conservative quarters.

page 208 note 1 Deutsch, Karl W.et al., Political Community and the North Atlantic Area (Princeton, 1957).Google Scholar

page 208 note 2 Young, Oran R., Resource Management at the International Level: The Case of Beringia, xeroxed manuscript (Austin, 1975).Google Scholar