Monbiot, George, The age of consent: a manifesto for a new world order

Monbiot makes three proposals in this work.

A world parliament. Monbiot notes that there is in effect already a world government, comprising the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, the United Nations Security Council, and the like. However, this current system is not at all democratic, as the decision makers are not elected, and represent their constituencies unequally. Monbiot argues that democracy is the best political system that we have, and it should be applied to the world. He discusses criticisms of democracy, and admits that democracy has some imperfections, but that it is better than alternative systems. Specifically, he proposes that the world parliament be elected by electorates of equal size, probably crossing national borders. (Australia and New Zealand might elect two members to his parliament of 600, by my calculations).

An International Clearing Union. Keynes, it seems, had this idea back in the 1940s, but the Americans opposed it. The idea is in effect that countries have a credit limit on what they can borrow, and a debit limit on what they can lend. Debts beyond these limits (for either the borrower nation or the lender) would not be enforceable. This would all operate through an International Clearing Union (Keynes had to settle for an International Monetary Fund instead).

A Fair Trade Organisation. If the International Clearing Union would replace the International Monetary Fund, the Fair Trade Organisation would replace the World Trade Organisation. The role of the Fair Trade Organisation would be to ensure that international trade and business followed the relevant international law and standards, such as labour law and investment law. It would also ensure that terms of trade were equitable for all the countries concerned.

Monbiot, George. The age of consent: a manifesto for a new world order. 2003, Flamingo, London. paperback. 274 pages.