The World Polity and the Nation-State System: An Updated Analysis
| Author | Seyom Brown |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900302 |
| Published date | 01 September 1984 |
| Date | 01 September 1984 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
SEYOM
BROWN
The
world
polity
and
the
nation-state
system:
an
updated
analysis
I
am
more
convinced
now
than
I
was
in
the
early
1970s
when
I
first
published
on
the
subject'
that
the
last
quarter
of
the
twen-
tieth
century
will
mark
a
historic
turn
in
the
evolution
of
the
world
polity.
My
basic
forecast
then,
now
reiterated
with
even
greater certitude,
is
not that
the nation-state
system
is
about
to
be
supplanted
by
another
system,
but
rather
that
the
dominant
role
of
nation-states
in
the
preservation
of
order
and
the
alloca-
tion
of
values
in
the
world
polity
is
being challenged
by
other
entities
and
movements
-
subnational,
transnational, and
su-
pranational
-
which,
relatively
speaking,
will
continue
to
gain
in
appeal,
authority,
and
power.
The
world
polity,
which
can no
longer
be
defined
simply
as
a
nation-state
system,
is
turning
into
a
polyarchy.
The
institu-
tions
and
individuals
who can
'deliver the
goods'
across
national
borders
and
who
therefore
are
both
primary
objects
and
actors
in
the
diplomatic
arena
may
or
may
not
be
official
agencies
of
the
nation-state
in
whose
jurisdiction
they reside
or
are
permit-
ted
to
operate.
Increasingly,
the
nation-state
system
operates
as
a
subsystem, in
competition
with
other
subsystems,
of
a
poly-
archical
world
polity.
This
is
not
to
say
that human
communities
are
anywhere
near
ready
to
discard
the
organized
nation-state
as
the per-
Professor
of
Politics
at
Brandeis
University
and
Acting
Director
of
the
University
Consortium for
Research
on
North
America,
Center
for International
Affairs,
Harvard
University;
author,
inter
alia,
of
On
the
Front
Burner:
Issues
in U.S.
Foreign
Policy
(Boston:
Little,
Brown
1984).
i
See,
especially,
New Forces
in
World
Politics
(Washington
DC:
Brookings
Institution
1974),
chapters
7-10.
International
Journal
XXXIX
summer
1984
510
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
former
of
essential
security
and
welfare
functions
or
that
rela-
tions
between
national
governments
are becoming
peripheral
to
world
politics.
Too
often
a
willingness
to take
analytical
cog-
nizance
of,
or
to
be
politically
responsive
to,
the
forces
challeng-
ing
the nation-state
system
is
misinterpreted
as
naivet6
about
the
reasons
this
system
has
had
such
a
profound
hold
on
the
world.
Lest
such
misinterpretation
be
made
of
the
speculations
in
this
article
-
which,
it
should
be
noted,
are
about
the
direction
of
change
and the
evolutionary
potential
of
the
world
polity
-
let
me
first
set
out
my
appreciation
of
the
elemental and
crucial
functions the nation-state
system
continues
to
perform
for
human
society.
THE
NATION-STATE
SYSTEM:
AN
APPRECIATION
The
nation-state
system has
two
dimensions:
(I)
a
'domestic' di-
mension,
or
the
relations
of
the people
within
a
country
with
one
another
and
with
the
institutions
of
government;
and
(2)
an
'international'
dimension,
or
the relations
of
one
country
with
other
countries.
Each
of
the
territorially
demarcated
countries
into
which
all
the people
of
the
world
now
are divided
(some
165
of
them)
is
supposed
to
retain
sovereignty,
in
the
sense
of
full
legal
author-
ity,
over
what
happens
in
that country.
Each
claims
to
be
a
self-
governing community
-
a
state
-
and
generally
is
recognized
by
other
such
communities
as
having
this
independent
political
status.
In
each
of
these
nation-states,
ultimate
authority
and
power are
assumed
to
be
lodged
in
a
central
government
which
is
responsible
for
ensuring
that
the
basic
requirements
of
com-
munity
life
are
maintained
for the
human
beings
within
its
ju-
risdiction
-
namely,
law
and
order
(particularly
the
physical
se-
curity
of
persons and
property),
conditions
that
encourage
industry
and
commerce,
processes
for
maintaining
community
norms
of
justice,
controls
on
the
use
of
natural
resources
and
the
natural
environment,
and
a
common
cultural
base,
espe-
cially
language.
Despite
the
existence
of
alternative
foci
of
social
identifica-
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