Abstract
In the previous chapter (pp. 18ff.), we suggested that there is a third type of modern sociopolitical organization not accounted for by Sahlins and Service, viz., the international organization level of sociopolitical integration. This is not to imply that international organization can lay claim to historical reality in the same way as the archaic state or the nation state can. What we do assert, however, is that it is possible to observe a raising of the upper level of sociopolitical integration in the form of an emergent international organization level of integration. Furthermore, we would argue that this process of organizational step-level change is a consequence of the spread of industrial civilization over the globe. However, the full unfolding of the international organization level of integration will not come about unless all parts of the world have reached the stage of advanced industrial society directly or indirectly, i.e., through redistributive transfers. A third proposition concerns the integrative effectiveness of the international organization level; here, we would expect that the danger to the survival and reproduction of societies and individuals emanating from the interactions of nation states would be reduced as the international organization level of integration emerges more strongly.
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Notes
This definition comes close to the ‘new machinery for diplomacy’ concept of international organization referred to previously (p. 2).
The terms supranational and national ‘bureaucracies’ refer to politico-administrative institutions (government).
The opposite is an administrative staff which functions as a permanent conference secretariat only.
For a more detailed theoretical analysis of bureaucratic interpenetration with examples taken from the experience of the European Community see Scheinman (1971); cf. also Feld (1971) on the same subject.
Secondment refers to the transfer of national civil service officers to executive positions within the supranational bureaucracy with the stipulation that they be transferred back to the national administration after several years of service at the supranational level. Of course, not all members of supranational bureaucracies are seconded from national bureaucracies. For instance, the administrative staff of both the U.N. and the European Community is composed of supranational career civil servants (the majority) and seconded national civil service officers (a strong minority).
Ascribed international status is roughly measured by the number of diplomatic representatives received from other countries. For details, see Singer and Small (1966).
The utility of IGO budget figures as indicators of the raising of the upper level of sociopolitical integration beyond the nation state, i.e., of international organization-building, was not only suggested by Quincy Wright (cf., pp. 12–13 above), but has recently been emphasized again by Robert Cox (1970: 26).
For detailed information on the individual IGO’s which have been included in our sample, their budgets, and the data sources, cf., Appendix.
Due to gaps in our main data source, Banks (1971), actually not all independent states have been included in the totals for population, central government and defense expenditures. To obtain a consistent time-series, we excluded those countries for which data on a given variable were missing for two (or more) successive data points.
An example of the first alternative would be the International Metalworkers’ Federation. The second alternative refers to groups such as the International Olympic Committee. An organization such as the International Political Science Association includes both.
It should be noted that the two data sets in Table 3.3 obviously diverge in their criteria on what constitutes a NGO.
For empirical evidence on the rising share of invisible trade in world exports, cf., Theodore Morgan (1965: 158) who quotes a report in Lloyd’s Bank Review (April 1961) stating that invisibles made up 28 percent of world receipts from exports in 1958 whereas in 1951 the figure stood at 22 percent.
These three conditions are: (1) some minimum regulatory and/or distributive task; (2) the binding nature of collective decisions, at least for those voting in the affirmative; (3) possession by the administrative staff of at least a share in the power of initiating collective policies.
Of course, we can only correlate the Wallace-Singer data with our data starting in 1865. This should not create a serious problem in any case, since there were very few IGO’s in existence before 1965.
The reasons for using both statistical techniques in analyzing these data are detailed in Chapter 4, Section 3. There we also provide the rationale for taking the first differences (delta values) instead of the level values of our time-series data.
This has been a major weakness of the research on community formation in Western Europe and the North Atlantic area conducted by Deutsch and his associates (1967). For a detailed critique, see Rittberger (1970a).
This finding seems to be consistent with a result reported by Arosalo (1970: 251) for the Western European context. This author tested the temporal sequence between inter-governmental organizations (IGO’s), non-governmental international associations (NGO’s) and international business organizations (BINGO’s). He found that the following pattern fit his data best: IGO → NGO → BINGO
We found the best fitting exponential curve by using the equation Y = abx. (1) Logarithmically transformed, this equation becomes Log Y = Log a + X Log b. (2) Transforming the observed values for Y logarithmically and performing s simple regression analysis on the data, we obtain the following equation: Log Y = Log 0.36378 + X Log 0.13962. (3) Reconverting this equation to its original form, we can write Y = 2.3(1.4)x (4) Where Y is U.N. System Expenditures/National Government Expenditures and X stands for cumulative time intervals.
Extrapolating from the best-fitting exponential curve to the next decades we might predict that at around 1990 the budgetary expenditures of the U.N. system will amount to one percent of all national government expenditures. By the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, the U.N. system should have reached the ten percent mark according to this extrapolation.
For a survey of techniques which can be used for estimating the inflexion point of a logistic curve from incomplete data, cf. Nair (1964).
The several variants of the nation-state-system model of world politics differ from its pure form as well as from one another primarily in terms of the number of nation states that are considered capable of making world policy; put differently, most variants tend to have a Great Power bias. However, this fact leaves unaffected that aspect of the nation-state-system model which concerns us most here, that is, the non-existence of effective superstructures constraining national behavior.
Cf., Joseph Strayer’s (1966: 20–21) brief account of the emergence of the notion of external sovereignty during the early phases of nation-state building in Europe.
These two aspects, the normative and empirically-predictive, are, as a rule, inextricably intertwined in the world-state model.
For a concise review of the literature on world-state models, cf., Senghaas-Knobloch (1969: 26–42). In addition, good discussions are also to be found in Black (1969: 29–30) and Claude (1964: 371ff.).
Whether or not this would also imply regulatory and planning tasks is not clear in the case of Clark and Sohn.
On the policing activities of the U.N., cf., Haas (1968a: Chapter 3) and Zacher (1970); the involvement of regional intergovernmental organizations in controlling international violence has been analyzed by Miller (1969) and Nye (1971: Chapter 5); and a comparative investigation of U.N. and regional organization activities in this field has been carried out by Haas, Butterworth and Nye (1972). Cf. also Fabian (1971).
A similar picture is obtained from studies of the International Court of Justice; cf., Coplin and Rochester (1972) and Padelford (1968). Here the problem is less a lack of compliance with Court decisions than the small number of cases submitted to the Court for settlement. But, of course, the willingness to submit cases for decision by the Court in the first place is related to a country’s readiness to accept Court jurisdiction across a broad range of political disputes; and this readiness is not yet very widespread.
A good example of this can be found in the activities of the World Bank, on the one hand, and the special programs of the U.N., specifically the U.N. Development Programme, on the other; cf., in particular, the report of the Jackson-Committee (Capacity Study, 1969, vol. II, pp. 304–305). For a case of open antagonism between U.N. and Bank see Bleicher (1970).
In 1927, André Maurois suggested in his book The Next Chapter: The War Against the Moon that the achievement of world unity was contingent on a threat to mankind’s security from the moon (cf., Lasswell (1965: 182–183)). Taking Maurois’ ideas seriously, Lasswell expresses doubts ‘that the earth would be united against the moon, since the minority bloc on the moon would probably combine with the majority bloc on earth, and the minority bloc on earth would combine with the majority bloc on the moon to create an interplanetary balance of power in the customary pattern.’ (See also Hinsley (1967: 13).)
For example, William Fox (1969: 370), in his review of Harold Lasswell’s contribution to the study of world politics, emphasizes the unlikelihood of world unity through world conquest, particularly ‘because innovation is always local.’ This keeps the world in continuous disequilibrium. (Fox clearly discounts the much dreaded decisive technological breakthrough which would give one state an irresistible superiority over all others.) He concludes: ‘The recurrent patterns of local innovation, geographic diffusion, and partial incorporation have kept any of the competitors in world politics from achieving total domination.’
This classification of resources for social control is adapted from Etzioni (1964: 59–61).
Authority centers are represented by quadrants. The internal differentiation of the quadrants is to indicate that we are including not only political or governmental authority roles but also authority roles in other social contexts. The connecting lines should actually be one-, two-or multidimensional depending on the types of authority roles and issues involved.
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© 1973 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Rittberger, V. (1973). The International Organization Level of Integration and Its Relationship to the Nation State. In: Evolution and International Organization. Studien zur Regierungslehre und Internationalen Politik, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9070-1_3
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