Forging More Perfect Unions 

<br/><br/> The author believes that, to avoid disintegration, social advances toward more inclusive political structures must be accompanied by a moral advance toward more universal values.  This article discusses the three stages of humanity's global political unification as described in the Bahá'í writings: confederation, federation, commonwealth.  Since these forms of government are outer expressions of inner levels of collective unified consciousness, each of these forms of government also marks a stage of humanity's deepening inner unification.  Of particular note is the discussion of the changing concept of competition.  If human beings are to create a united world, they must stop competing selfishly and instead compete selflessly to forge cooperative structures that will benefit all humanity.