Why we need a democratic world parliament – Part 1

Part 1 of 4 by Jim Stark, President of Vote World Parliament

Jim Stark - Founder and co-president of Vote World Parliament

We need a democratic world parliament because we are smart enough to resolve our disputes through law rather than through the use of force, and because we are nice enough and civilized enough to not even want to beat up a person or a country that we may disagree with. There is no good reason why we can’t live as comfortably under world law as we do now under national, provincial (or “state”) and municipal law, and just as the formation of the nation ended wars among provinces and cities, a democratic world parliament will surely criminalize war and eventually end war between and among nations. Even terrorist groups should be less inclined to use force if there is a new global legal order where they can get a fair hearing for their grievances. While money isn’t everything, it is important. It will cost much less to institute “collective security” for the world than to maintain an armed force for each of the 194 sovereign nations, just as it costs much less to have a police force protecting all of us against all threats than it would be for each family to arm itself in case a neighbor from across the street may attack. The tax burden for security for your lifetime may well be cut in half by a democratic world parliament, and the actual security that can be delivered will be far greater through a democratic world parliament than it is in a current world of 194 national armies and 194 spy agencies.