The question examined in this article is whether the contemporary world system is leading to a world society. World system connotes that we live in an increasingly interdependent world. The author examines the nature of world system in relation to world society. Then the author examines the nature of the world system as a growing interconnected global order, and the yet non-existent world or global society, a society as a network of social relations with mutual expectations and normative consensus. Difference (...) perspectives of world society are discussed, followed by a focus on cosmopolitan ethics and transnational civil society. Institutions of democratic world society and the implications are examined. The author concludes: more and more people come to live in a single world system; a transnational civil society and an international public space are growing; a global communitarian culture and a cosmopolitan ethics are gaining ground. (shrink)