Federation And Confederation Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The two forms of organizing political authority—confederation and federation—can, in theory, be distinguished as follows. A confederation is a union of equal, sovereign states (normally recognized as such inter nationally) that have formed, for limited general purposes, a common government. By contrast, a federation consists of a system of divided powers wherein a central government and territorial units (known variously as provinces, regions, states, or cantons) each has different policy responsibilities. Thus, a confederation is a treaty-based union that concedes few powers to the center for the sake of the liberty of the constituent units, which are also in principle free to secede. Conversely, a federation has a constitution, which presupposes the permanency of the union, designed both to secure individual rights and to divide power—the purpose being to reconcile unit self-government and individual freedom. As a result, even if in both types of union the units are subject to a central political authority, in a confederation this binds the states only as collective actors, thereby not creating rights or duties for individuals. However, in a federation, government reaches down to individuals, for instance, by guaranteeing certain constitutional freedoms or extracting taxes directly from citizens. This difference is visible in the legislative institutions of both types of union since a confederation has only one chamber, where all units are represented, whereas a federation has two chambers, one chosen to represent the units and another that represents all the citizens. This is why a confederation is best described as a union of states while a federation is at the same time a union of states and a community of individuals.

In addition, given the need to respect state equality and sovereignty, decisions in a confederation—especially over reforming the treaty of union—are taken by unanimity; all members must agree before the powers or purposes of the union can be altered. The division of powers between territorial levels of government in a federation cannot be changed unilaterally by either level. Any change is based on a constitutional process incorporating both the units and the center. However, federal decision making is based on the majority principle, not unanimity; for constitutional change this typically requires a higher threshold, known as a “supermajority,” rather than a simple majority. Hence both types of union share similar features that distinguish them from unitary states, which have a simple hierarchy of government, no special representation of territorial units in the legislature, and a center free to redraw the boundaries and reallocate the powers of territorial government unhindered.

Confederations And Federations In Modern World Politics

Although better known as an international organization, the United Nations (UN) is in effect a global confederation, which tries to reconcile state sovereignty with a weak common government concerned with global problems, notably peace, human rights, international development, and environmental protection. The UN also illustrates the chief defects of confederation: the absence of a coercive authority to enforce member state compliance except ultimately via recourse to armed force, the subsequent reliance on states’ respect for their UN-imposed obligations, and the stymieing effect of unanimous decision making, at least among the permanent members of the Security Council. These structural weaknesses help explain why self-defense confederations such as the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1579–1795), the Swiss Confederation (1291–1848), the German Bund (1815–1866), and the United States under the Articles of Confederation (1781–1789) failed to survive into the modern era.

Indeed, it was the desire to remedy the faults of confederation that prompted the members of the Philadelphia Convention (1787–1788) to design the first modern federation, the United States of America. U.S. Federalism was intended as a preferable alternative to a unitary, centralized republic because individual liberty was thought to require an effective central government kept in check by unit self-government. Hence, Federalism is considered a way of institutionalizing democracy, which is why nondemocratic federations, such as the former Soviet Union (1922–1991) or even the contemporary Russian Federation (1991–), are sometimes seen as spurious instances of federation. Nonetheless, the spread of Federalism has been such that by 2000, two billion people lived in federations.

By cleaving political authority between two levels of government, the U.S. federal Constitution left unresolved many problems regarding how this separation would function in practice. The study of these issues is known as intergovernmental relations. Major research questions in this field include whether federations are subject to ongoing centralization or else cycles of centralization and decentralization. The impact of Federalism on the effectiveness and outcome of policy making is also much studied. The relationship between democracy and Federalism is also considerably debated since the ant majoritarian nature of federal decision making has been linked to conservatism and the entrenchment of special interests.

Today, however, the principal attraction of federation is less the protection of abstract notions of individual liberty than the ability to guarantee certain rights dear to ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities by granting autonomy to these territorially based minorities. Thus, the development of Federalism in plural societies such as India, Canada, or Belgium has been explained as a process of holding together a state, often leading to asymmetric autonomy between the constituent units.

An In-Between Category: The European Union

The novelty of the European Union (EU) is its combination of confederal and federal principles. What began as a regional economic confederation is now neither a pure federation nor a pure confederation. Instead, the hybrid EU polity is characterized by the creation of an autonomous, constitutionalized legal order consisting of individual rights alongside a political order where major decisions are taken unanimously by member states. Thus, aspects of confederation, notably the treaty system of common government, the right of exit, and a chamber representing state governments, coexist alongside a federal legal order. There is also a directly elected lower chamber—the European Parliament—whose federal-like legislative powers have continued to expand.

The EU, therefore, is almost a political laboratory, as the merits and flaws of confederation and federation are constantly debated—often drawing on the U.S. experience—especially from the perspective of the respective democratic legitimacy they confer. In addition, the EU model is seen as a blueprint for overcoming long-standing antagonisms between nationstates. However, it remains to be seen whether the EU is an exceptional case or whether other regional organizations of states, such as the African Union, Mercosur (South American), or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, will mimic its hybrid development.

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