Democrats and World Government

[John Dibble]

Why does or doesn't the WTO qualify as world government?

I'll take a crack at this one. The WTO is a beauracracy, not a government, though it does have elements of a government. Certainly many governments in the world are part of it, but it lacks some major elements that constitute government - first off it is not sovereign. Not all governments are sovereign, local governments being an example, but even local governments are backed by one sovereign power - only one. The WTO is more of an agreement between multiple sovereign governments, no one government having complete control. The WTO also does not have any way to enforce it's rules - it relies completely on voluntary cooperation between sovereign nations. Also, the WTO has no citizens, residents, or land to rule - only the sovereign nations and the lower forms of government within them do. For those reasons I don't think the WTO is a government.

[John Dibble]

Why does or doesn't the WTO qualify as world government?

I'll take a crack at this one. The WTO is a beauracracy, not a government, though it does have elements of a government. Certainly many governments in the world are part of it, but it lacks some major elements that constitute government - first off it is not sovereign. Not all governments are sovereign, local governments being an example, but even local governments are backed by one sovereign power - only one. The WTO is more of an agreement between multiple sovereign governments, no one government having complete control. The WTO also does not have any way to enforce it's rules - it relies completely on voluntary cooperation between sovereign nations. Also, the WTO has no citizens, residents, or land to rule - only the sovereign nations and the lower forms of government within them do. For those reasons I don't think the WTO is a government.

What enforcement mechanisms does the WTO have?

What countries have successfully bucked WTO rulings?

I don't know about the second, but the first is easy. They don't have any enforcement mechanisms - they rely completely on the sovereign nations involved to voluntarily enforce things(sometimes on other nations, but the WTO itself has no way to force anyone to comply). If all the nations in the WTO suddenly decided not to enforce any WTO rulings, the WTO would be completely powerless.