The measurement of international integration, in all its aspects, is increasingly important to a complete understanding of societal well-being and its dynamics. A higher degree of international

GLOBAL INTEGRATION

The measurement of international integration, in all its aspects, is increasingly important to a complete understanding of societal well-being and its dynamics. A higher degree of international integration can be seen in itself as an indicator of societal progress, inasmuch as it reveals that human societies more and more acknowledge their common destiny. In addition, international integration fosters the provision of essential ingredients of societal progress, such as trans-national public goods and economic growth. These issues are often approached in the context of the debate about globalisation.

Political integration may be defined as a cumulative process of change in the nature of relations among more or less sovereign political units, such as states, during which these units voluntarily accept some kind of new central authority. This process requires at least four constituent elements: (a) the political units involved must permit the establishment of central institutions which promulgate policies; (b) the functions of this central authority may not be trivial or vague but must be important and specific; (c) the functions, or tasks, performed by the central institutions should be inherently “expansive”; (d) the political units must remain committed to the common enterprise because they perceive ensuing benefits.

Global integration, in contrast to regional integration or the integration of structures of authority within a state, refers to processes of integration during which functions are delegated to a new central authority whose decisions are accepted as legitimate by the component members of world society. What constitutes the members of a world society, or world society itself, is a question that can be investigated historically. Different historical periods are characterized by different types of world society, and the attributes of the members of these world societies may also differ quite radically in terms of size, number, absolute and relative power, internal cohesion, value systems, objectives, and so forth. The members of the world society may be nation-states (as is generally the case today), empires, principalities, city-states, or any other forms of political organization endowed with the authority to deal with external affairs.

Contemporary world society is a global society and, in fact, is about to transcend its global confines and extend into outer space. The attributes of this contemporary global world society and the nature of its component members can be usefully described and summarized by the term “international system.” That is, the contemporary international system may be regarded as one of many possible ways in which the members of a world society can interact. An international system in turn may be defined as a pattern of relations among the major units of world politics (states) that is characterized by the absolute and relative power of these units and by the conflicting and converging objectives pursued by these units. The resulting patterns of power and purpose are thus the consequence of the physical and psychological-motivational forces that operate within and among the major units.

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