THE CRACK-UP OF THE NATION

less visible groups form, in effect, a “second world organization.” Their aggregate budgets in 1975 amounted to a mere $1.5 billion—but this is only a tiny fraction of the resources controlled by their subordinate units. They have their own “trade association”—the Brussels-based Union of International Associations. They relate to one another vertically, with local, regional, national, and other groupings coming together under the transnational organization. They also relate horizontally through a dense mesh of consortia, working groups, interorganizational committees, and task forces.

So dense are these transnational ties that, according to a study by the Union of International Associations, there were an estimated 52,075 identifiable, interlocking relationships and cross-linkages among 1,857 such groups in 1977. And this number is soaring upward, too. Literally thousands of transnational meetings, conferences, and symposia bring the members of these different groupings into contact with one another.

Though still relatively underdeveloped, this fast-growing transnational network (or T-Net) adds yet another dimension to the emerging Third Wave world system. Even this does not complete the picture, however.

The nation-state’s role is still further diminished as nations themselves are forced to create supranational agencies. Nation-states fight to retain as much sovereignty and freedom of action as they can. But they are being driven, step by step, to accept new constraints on their independence.

European countries, for example, grudgingly but inevitably have been driven to create a Common Market, a European parliament, a European monetary system, and specialized agencies like CERN—the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Richard Burke, the Common Market’s tax commissioner, brings pressure to bear on member nations to alter their domestic tax policies. Agricultural and industrial policies once determined in London or Paris are hammered out in Brussels. Members of the European Parliament actually ram through an $840-million increase in the EEC budget over theobjections of their national governments.

The Common Market is perhaps the prime example of the gravitation of power to a supranational agency. But it is not the only example. We are, in fact, seeing a population explosion of such inter-governmental organizations (or IGOs) —groupings or consortia of three or more nations. They range from the World Meteorological Organization and

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