Using Global Democracy to Build Global Democracy: Paradoxes and Pitfalls in the World Government Movement’s Attempts to Transform Post–War Global Governance, 1945–1955

Straight after the formation of the United Nations in 1945, a flood of proposals for how to reform or transform the new organisation emerged. One idea was that it should be transformed into a democratic world government. This article focuses on the early years of the world government movement and discusses three attempts to transform post–war global governance – by convening a People’s World Constitutional Convention to draft the charter of an alternative world organisation which would replace the UN, by creating a transnational network of NGOs to work together to push for world government, and by organising an elite international network of parliamentarians who would advocate for world government in national parliaments in the run-up to the UN Charter Review Conference expected in 1955. The article places these efforts within a longer history of NGOs seeking to reform or transform global governance and explores how the world government NGOs sought to mobilise different conceptualisations of democracy and representation to push for change. In doing so it seeks to make a contribution to the broader history of international society by adding historical depth to questions regarding the relationship between cosmopolitan democracy, global civil society, and the practice of global governance.