World federalism
political idea of a global federal government
World federalism or global federalism, is a political ideology that advocates for a democratic, federal world government. The world federation would hold authority on issues of global concern, while member states would retain authority over local and national issues. Overall sovereignty over the world population would largely reside with the federal government.
World federalism is distinguished from unitary world government models by the principle of subsidiarity, in which decisions are made as much as possible at the most immediate level possible, preserving national agency to a large extent. Proponents maintain that a world federation offers a more effective and accountable global governance structure than the existing United Nations organization, while simultaneously allowing wide autonomy for continental, national, regional and local governments.
Scope
Unlike the more widely used concept of world government, world federalism describes a specific form of global governance, i.e., that of a federal, democratic world republic. The difference between world federalism and other types of global governance are outlined below.
Distinction to the existing United Nations
The United Nations is not a legislative body and is thus limited to a mostly advisory role. Its stated purpose is to foster cooperation between existing national governments rather than exerting authority over them.
Furthermore, membership of the United Nations organization is reserved for states, not individuals (see World Citizenship).
The public source identifies “World federalism” as political idea of a global federal government. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around World, federalism and political.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5857463. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “World federalism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.