Implications of Supranational Federation

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M t MANY persons advocate the formation of a democratic, federal, supranational government, during or immediately after the war. Most scholars who have studied the subject agree that there is no insuperable administrative, technical, or economic barrier to the establishment of such a government, if enough people want it, and if the Axis powers do not become too strong.2 It appears not impossible that enough persons will want it, but the history of other attempts at changing human institutions imposes a warning. It is one thing to persuade people to adopt a significant social change such as supranational Federal Union; it is another to organize affairs so they do not eventually return to the old order. The introduction of a new cultural feature of a fundamental sort will necessitate considerable readjustment of the culture as a whole,3 and in the process of readjustment, certain groups will be inconvenienced. These groups will join forces and insist on going back to the good old days. If they succeed, the brave new hope is written down all right in theory but not in practice. Those who support a proposal for human betterment are apt to meet criticism of it by an ever more intense emphasis upon the long-range desirability of that which they advocate. Unfortunately, as a practical matter, this type of reply is often irrelevant;4 a hero of modern Federal Unionists said on this point:'