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Thus a confederation is forever the creature, never the master of its members. It amounts to little more than an intricately formulated war-&-peace alliance. Its fatal flaw is that its strength is entirely borrowed—and on a demand note at that—from the nations that compose it. Either it acts as a vigilante committee for its strong members or, as in the case of the League, it does not act at all.
State Made of Citizens. A world government, to be strong in its own right, would have to be the master of its members. It would have to be granted by the separate nations a sizable chunk of their sovereignty. It would have to be able to deal directly with people—to tax them, jail them, regulate them, protect them. It would have to be a federation, a genuine union.
The most obvious example of a federal government formed out of a group of sovereign states is provided by the U.S. itself.
By the adoption of the Constitution the states (or, technically, their citizens) gave up the bulk of their sovereignty; they agreed to share with the national government some of their most vital powers and to endow it exclusively with others. Even so, it took a bloody Civil War—a type of threat to future world peace too often overlooked by planners of world governments—to convince some of the states that the nation was more sovereign than they.
It is highly unlikely that a world government could stand in time of trouble with less sovereignty, less governing power, than the states once gave to this nation.
Says the U.S. Constitution: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes . . . to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States . . .
"To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
"To regulate commerce . . . among the several states . . .
"To coin money, regulate the value thereof . . .
"To raise and support armies . . .
"To provide and maintain a navy . . .
"To provide for calling forth the militia. to execute the laws of the Union . . .
"To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers. . . ."
It would be virtually impossible for the U.S. to make war, or to prevent war between the states without these powers. The same holds for a world federation. The other side of the coin can also be read in the Constitution:
"No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation . . . coin money . . . lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports. . . .
"No state shall, without the consent of Congress . . . keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state. . . .
"The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states."
Finally,
"This Constitution, and the laws of the United States . . . shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby; anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."