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Barring a forced unity to compete in an interstellar community of nations, or a single totalitarian entity conquering the world by force, I just don't see a single world government coming into existance. In the former case it would really just be another step of consolidation as our 'world' expands to include the heavens, possibly analagous to what we are seeing now with European unification. In the later it would likely be a rather short-lived affair.
Solving some major crisis that faces the planet would likely not result in a world government. Global warming, killer asteroid, deadly plague, you name it, countries will create all kinds of cooperative international ventures to deal with a problem, but they won't in the end yield their own sovereignty beyond what little they absolutely have to in order to survive the crisis more or less intact.
That world government, brought on by whatever means, would equal some kind utopia or bring the dawn of some new age of human enlightenment and happiness, is not terribly realistic. It is easy to envision utopia (whatever flavor you subscribe to), see that utopian vision as being impossible to realize within the framework of the current nation-state structure of the world, and thus move to seeing world government as the way to achieving that otherwise unacheivable goal. But this lure is dangerously similar to the one that causes us to let totalitarians run over our countries on a regular basis. The initial promise is always to cut through the inefficiencies and gridlock of the preceding government to achieve some form of greatness for the state; this is as true for Rome's Julius Caesar as it was for Italy's Mussolini in the 20s, or is for Pakistan's Musharaf today.
Conservatives are right to be wary of the size and cost of such a government. Libertarians should definitely fear for the rights of individuals in such a state. Progressives should be scared white at the danger such a government would pose to the citizens and its unresponsiveness to local individuals and groups. Socialists ought to recoil in knowledge of the massive empowerment such government would offer to businesses over labor and consumers.
As easy as it is to imagine such a government working on behalf of your ideology of choice, the fact is, the closer you get to the 'foothills' if you will of the One World Government 'mountain', the more apparant it is what a monster it really is to just about all of us. If you aren't a business magnate or a political elite likely to have a role in such government, it is hard to really see the benefits of it in our present situation.
Josh
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