[Revised entry by Catherine Lu on January 5, 2021. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography] "World government" refers to the idea of all humankind united under one common political authority. Proposals for a unified global political authority have existed since ancient times - in the ambition of kings, popes and emperors, and the dreams of poets and philosophers. Recently, some have argued that a world government is already here, or nascent in contemporary conditions of capitalist globalization. There is much debate about whether global institutional developments towards a world state are inevitable or contingent,...