International Federalism
International Federalism is one part of the solution to violence and disorder in the world. The federalist principle of subsidiarity holds that all problems should be addressed at the most appropriate, and local, level possible. As Canadian scholar Hanna Newcombe stated, "What needs to be done is to de-emphasize the national level of decision-making and drain power from it in two directions: downward to the people at the grass-roots level and upward to the whole of humanity everywhere." World federalists, therefore support more authority going to local levels of government and the formation of a world federal system.
“What needs to be done is to de-emphasize the national level of decision-making and drain power from it in two directions: downward to the people at the grass-roots level and upward to the whole of humanity everywhere.”
WFM supports democratic means for international decision-making and therefore urges the primacy of the UN General Assembly. We believe that representative bodies should be democratically elected and work to establish a UN Parliamentary Assembly to compliment the appointed diplomats of the General Assembly. In addition, WFM hopes that representative bodies can be used to reform existing institutions such as the World Trade Organization and possible future international bodies such as the World Environmental Organization.
