The Fifth Estate must work with nation states to ensure a prosperous and peaceful planetary governance. This cooperation can address the Polycrisis and legitimize the Fifth Estate. Beyond technocratic internationalism and Sino-authoritarianism, the Fifth Estate offers a third way.
Outline
5.1. Transitioning to the New Order
5.1.a. Tech Stack of the New Order
5.1.b. Working With the Old Order
5.1.c. Transition Steps and the Network Convention
5.2. The Golden Path
5.1. Transitioning to the New Order
Between now and the speculative eventual legitimization of the Fifth Estate, many critical steps must be completed. But the first and most immediate thing to be done is the founding of a coordinating organization which bridges the old world and the new. This organization (let’s call it The Organization for now) would be something like Meta’s old Internet.org1 initiative: a non-profit entity capable of building bleeding edge technology (spinning off for-profit startups as needed), combined with a policy think tank and advocacy group pursuing the decades long mission of cultivating the legitimacy of the Fifth Estate.
International actors cannot negotiate with protocols or billions of people at once, making The Organization a necessary “sponsor” of the Fifth Estate on the international stage, pursuing the steps necessary to construct it. Let us discuss what these transition steps might look like.
Tech Stack of the New Order
A significant amount of investment from The Organization over the next decade will be required to build the tech stack that would make the Fifth Estate possible at scale. Many things must be built, most of which are beyond the scope of this essay, but there a few we can single out:
Better Decentralized Networks: While the crypto industry believes they have created the infrastructure necessary for a system like the Fifth Estate, credible people believe otherwise. In an article which reframes crypto/Web3’s theory and practice of decentralization, authors Divya Siddarth, Danielle Allen and Glen Weyl detail how the decentralization of the ledger is antithetical to the decentralization of the Network.
Figure 19. Source: Divya Siddarth, Danielle Allen, Glen Weyl.
They argue that where crypto emphasizes distributed redundancy—removing data from its context, token based consensus, and universalized solutions—the Network emphasizes Subsidiarity—data is close to the local context, varied solutions and coordination architecture, online and offline trust based networks. Arguably, crypto has failed to scale as fast as the Internet did precisely because it fails the test of subsidiarity. In order to build a true planetary coordination layer for the Fifth Estate, we must transition beyond the dogma of the decentralized ledger. This doesn’t mean that the blockchain is useless—it will certainly play a role in powering the Fifth Estate in future. But it does mean that it is not entirely general purpose.
Self Sovereign Identity (SSID): One of the original sins of the Internet is that it was born without a native SSID capability. The result after 30 years: spam, phishing scams, Deepfakes, a deluge of ads, pop-ups, repeated CAPTCHA, “are you human” verification tests, cookie messages, loose password regimes, billions from the developing world locked out of international finance, and a Big Tech data feudalism leaving billions with a complete lack of ownership of their data. For the Fifth Estate to scale, and coordinate at full capacity, SSID is a non-negotiable technology. It would put Network Citizens in control over their data, their digital identity, forcing third party digital services and governments to earn the right to access users, and would enable thousands of digital experiences—like the global airdrop of the Network Fund—that are currently impossible due to this SSID gap. It is a $550 Billion market2 awaiting the right solution, and a critical piece of open source infrastructure for our networked civilization to thrive.
Network Passport: On top of an open and interoperable SSID platform, a Network Passport must be built to enable members of the Fifth Estate to afford globall mobility and access the global economy. This passport would have the features of a strong passport, unleash global talent based movement, enable countries to bootstrap their own e-Estonia programs, and provide health insurance and safety net coverage for each passport holder. Building this tool is fundamentally a consequence of both technological and policy work done over years, fueled by the growth of the Network economy and things like the Network Fund. More than any other piece of technology, however, the Network Passport is arguably the most fundamental to accelerating the Fifth Estate’s recognition on the international stage.
Network Stablecoin: The second original sin of the Internet, echoed by Marc Andreessen3, was its lack of a native financial layer at birth. Some believe Bitcoin has remedied this error. But after 15 years, Bitcoin has failed to scale even to half a billion wallets. As of March 2024, there were only 46 million wallets4 holding at least $1 of value. Over 90% of all Bitcoin wallets are inactive, meaning that the network is majority owned by a crypto oligarchy of miners, validators, crypto whales and a few institutional players. In short, while Bitcoin is undoubtedly a victory of the Fifth Estate, it is not the definite future financial layer of the Fifth Estate.
Over 600 Million Africans are still unbanked, and access to cheap capital for the young and ambitious around the world is still a major obstacle. Stablecoins, which are pegged to stable assets like fiat currencies, have emerged as a solution to this problem, making up $5 Billion in transaction volume in the Global South, and accounting for 20% of remittances. However, fiat currencies, especially in developing countries, are also subject to inflation, eroding purchasing power over time. To succeed, the Fifth Estate needs a native, truly decentralized stable currency that can reach at least 1 Billion active wallets within five years. This is the only real metric of success a true Network native financial layer must be judged against.
Network Commons Platform: Specialized platforms to enable Network Commons creation and management must be built. Scalable APIs for integration with existing e-Government systems such as Estonia’s and Palau’s5, as well as other elements of the Fifth Estate such as the Network Fund, would also be beneficial in charting a path between the Old Order and the New. In addition, scalable cloud infrastructure for hosting Network Commons should be constructed, as well as collaborative decision-making tools, secure communication channels, and interoperability protocols for cross-Commons collaboration.
Working With the Old Order
It would be naive to think that the established, hegemonic, US-led Liberal International Order (LIO from here on) would simply sit back and watch the Fifth Estate assert itself as completely as I may have let on. As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, the legitimacy of the Fifth Estate will be just as hard fought as that of the Fourth Estate was relative to the kingdoms of their day.
But it would be a mistake for the LIO to view the Fifth Estate as an enemy. In fact, and especially as regards the US, one could argue that the LIO should view the Fifth Estate as an opportunity to embed what’s most powerful about its values and interests into the New Order. Indeed there is a world in which the Fifth Estate could exist as the second, younger body of the LIO.
First, the Fifth Estate can co-exist with nation states. In a world in which both exist, with the principle of Subsidiarity legitimized in international law thanks to the effort of The Organization, each would operate at the scale which they are called to. The role of the nation state would shift from being everything to its citizens, to handling largely economic and foreign policy issues: security, intelligence, diplomacy. Across the world, countries aligned with the LIO would have their domestic issues resolved via Network Commons closest to the problems which affect them.
Second, projects which demand planetary scale coordination would have to solicit the cooperation of the network. Projecting forward, these could include accelerating global energy production to shift reliance on fossil fuels; governing general purpose technologies like AI or, in future, nanotech and genetic engineering; and establishing open standards for astro-politics that would allow multiple non-state actors: private corporations, nonprofits, and Network Commons, to participate in humanity’s journey to new worlds.
This is far from a radical suggestion. Since the 1920s, several proposals have surfaced for reforming the UN to create a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) as a sort of world parliament which would represent global non-state interests at the UN. Former Chair of the World Federalist Movement Dieter Heinrich6 believed that such a “parliamentary assembly would be made up of individuals who would speak for citizens”. Reforming the UN is a daunting task, however. Instead, the Fifth Estate would achieve the same, if not better outcomes sought by Heinrich, but through the use of Network Power.
The Network shares the values of the LIO. It is open by default. It rewards autonomy. It is resilient. And it liberates capital. Simply put: A smart and ambitious Fifth Estate cooperation strategy would enable the leaders of the LIO to solve the Polycrisis and ensure the proliferation of freedom, openness, and prosperity on this world, and worlds beyond.
Former US State Department Director of Policy Planning Anne Marie Slaughter has been a persistent and strong advocate for a marriage of equals between Network Power and the state, stating:
To see the international system as a web is to see a world not of states but of networks…Despite this new reality, most foreign-policy makers reflexively act as chess players, seeing the world as if they lived in the seventeenth century, when the Peace of Westphalia created a framework of sovereign and equal states. They understand the reality of networked threats but lack strategies befitting the world of web actors. It is time to develop those strategies and to integrate statecraft with webcraft, the art of designing, building, and managing networks. The United States, for its part, needs a grand strategy that pursues American interests and values in the web as well as on the chessboard.
She continues to add that the Network is perhaps a better candidate for providing the resilience that an international order stretched to the brim fails to:
The international order of 1945 was based on the principle of “embedded liberalism,” meaning that the insecurity of open money and trade was cushioned by domestic safety nets. Similarly, an open international order of the twenty-first century should be anchored in secure and self-reliant societies, in which citizens can participate actively in their own protection and prosperity.
Though Slaughter’s treatment of the network here extends primarily to “corporate, civic, and public”, the Fifth Estate is arguably the best potential alternate power capable of delivering the agency, security, and self-reliance she advocates for. It represents a genuine asset, and potential counter-weight to the hierarchical, technocratic, and unresponsive current international order, as well as the authoritarian Sino Futurism of the CCP. The Fifth Estate is a third way—the total subordination of all or nothing political logic to both local and holistic socio-political Visions, coordinated by a distributed planetary network of active participants. But for that future to arise, Slaughter argues, the Great Powers will have to change:
It is time for reform. The institutions built after World War II remain important repositories of legitimacy and authority. But they need to become the hubs of a flatter, faster, more flexible system, one that operates at the level of citizens as well as states. That means finally tackling the job of opening up the postwar institutions to newer actors. It also means flattening the hierarchy between the UN and regional organizations, so that the latter can act more autonomously, with either advance or subsequent Security Council approval of their actions…Revising the UN Charter would open Pandora’s box. Substantive changes in the past have required a cataclysm, which the world cannot afford. But rising powers will not wait forever. They will simply create their own orders, with their own regional institutions and security networks. If the current international order proves too brittle to change, it will simply crumble. Like the once great European dukedoms, it will keep the buildings and the pageantry, but the power will have moved on.
Slaughter goes on to suggest that eventually, 20th century interstate organizations—the UN, IMF, World Bank, WTO, EU, etc—can transform into networked platforms enabling collaboration between non-state actors and the nation state, as foreshadowed by the Network Commons concept. This future is possible. What we need are good visions and stronger wills to see that future through.
Transition Steps and the Network Convention
The progression from the Old Order to the New Order will likely roughly go through five key steps:
Figure 20. Transition Steps to the New Order. Big things have small beginnings.
1) Assertion: Legitimacy stems from authority, and all authority is fundamentally asserted. We are currently at the “Assertion” phase of legitimizing the Fifth Estate. This phase is characterized by the development of technology to coordinate the Network, and laying out the philosophical foundations of the Fifth Estate as a framework.
2) Normalization: This phase is where the work of The Organization becomes necessary, characterized by the publishing of policy and the work of advocacy for the Fifth Estate in every significant hall of power.
3) Networkification: Combining phases 1 and 2, the Networkification step is about onboarding existing cities and political communities onto the Network—aka e-Estonia for the world. This enables the Fifth Estate to exist as a peer with legitimate sovereigns the world over.
4) Legitimization: By this stage, the notions of the Fifth Estate and Network Citizenship, combined with the technology built in phase 1, enable the creation of a Network Passport: a globally recognized standard of Fifth Estate citizenship enabling every person to layer a new Network-based identity on top of territorial, national identity, thus guaranteeing their access to the world economy and mobility independent of the geography they are born in. In short, the Network Passport is the lynchpin of the Fifth Estate’s legitimization strategy.
5) Recognition: Leveraging the Network Passport as a foundation, Network Nations will finally be seen as legitimate, viable socio-political entities worthy of recognition from the several countries onboarded to the Network (phase 3).
This last step, alongside the cohabitation between Network and State which Slaughter argues for above, paradoxically, can best be achieved through a sort of Separation of State and Network. To legitimize the Fifth Estate, its organizations, and its powers, it is likely that an official international convention recognizing Network Power as legitimate would need to be adopted—much as Sweden’s Freedom of Press Act of 1766 officially recognized the Fourth Estate as a legitimate power, or more recently, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Indeed the legitimization of the Human Rights convention is an instructive episode for the Fifth Estate. If such a document could be said to have a flaw, it would be that it still fundamentally conceptualizes the world as a chess board where states alone are sovereign, failing to anticipate, and eventually take into account the discovery of the new spatial order from which the Fifth Estate emerges: the Network.
One way to achieve this new convention would be for a Network Convention document to be drafted by the Fifth Estate itself, and recognized by the international community, enshrining the Fifth Estate as a parallel power and spatial order on the world stage. The precise mechanisms of how such a document would be written, what its contents would be, and how the ratification process would unfold are, again, beyond this essay. But I am confident that such tactical questions, if they ever arise, would be one of those “good problems”, and will by then prove a very slight challenge to a mature Fifth Estate.
5.2. The Golden Path
Historian Arnold Toynbee thought that civilizations rose and fell in a process of challenge and response. Challenges that elicit a spiritual vigor within a culture ensure its survival. Those that are too difficult to bear for a culture guarantee its fall. We are living in one of the most fragile geopolitical moments of the post-war era, a time of domestic political dysfunction, and an economic phase shift caused by intensifying “technologification”.
Ours is a time of true challenges. How we respond will decide our fate for eons. My bet, if it is not a hope, is that the Fifth Estate represents a Golden Path to a grand future. We are not here to save the world, only to forge a new one.