Searching for a world polity: the world after international anarchy question

McKeil, Aaron (2017) Searching for a world polity: the world after international anarchy question. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Text - Submitted Version Download (1MB)

Abstract

Why is there no post-Westphalian world polity today, despite the globalism of recent decades? Is the construction of a world polity an impossible utopia? If it is possible, under what conditions, by what processes, and in what necessary social form? Available visions of a world polity form a debate and world polity formation theories offer limited explanations. In response, this study argues the emergence of a world polity is possible, but is an unlikely and fragile outcome in a late modern context. Two contributions are made to support this argument. First, a new world polity formation theory is developed that explains how systems of polities become single polities. A second contribution advances an account of the historically specific transcivilizational and planetary social form a world polity must necessarily attain if it were to be practically constructed in a late modern context

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2017 Aaron C. McKeil
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
Sets:	Departments > International Relations
Supervisor:	Wilson, Peter
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/3642

Actions (login required)

Record administration - authorised staff only