Aconfederation (also known as aconfederacy orleague) is a political union ofsovereign states united for purposes of common action.[1] Usually created by atreaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issues, such as defence, foreign relations, internal trade or currency, with the central government being required to provide support for all its members. Confederalism represents a main form ofintergovernmentalism, defined as any form of interaction around states that takes place on the basis of sovereign independence or government.
The nature of the relationship among the member states constituting a confederation varies considerably. Likewise, the relationship between the member states and the general government and their distribution of powers varies. Some looser confederations are similar tointernational organisations. Other confederations with stricter rules may resemblefederal systems.These elements of such confederations, the international organization and federalist perspective, has been combined assupranational unions.
Since the member states of a confederation retain their sovereignty, they have an implicit right ofsecession. The political philosopherEmmerich de Vattel said: "Several sovereign and independent states may unite themselves together by a perpetual confederacy without each, in particular, ceasing to be a perfect state.... The deliberations in common will offer no violence to the sovereignty of each member".[2]
Under a confederation, compared to afederal state, the central authority is relatively weak.[3] Decisions made by the general government in a unicameral legislature, a council of the member states, require subsequent implementation by the member states to take effect; they are not laws acting directly upon the individual but have more the character of interstate agreements.[4] Also, decision-making in the general government usually proceeds by consensus (unanimity), not by the majority. Historically, those features limit the union's effectiveness. Hence, political pressure tends to build over time for the transition to a federal system of government, as in the American, Swiss and German cases ofregional integration.
In terms of internal structure, every confederal state is composed of two or more constituent states, referred to asconfederated states. Regarding theirpolitical systems, confederated states can haverepublican ormonarchical forms of government. Those that have a republican form (confederated republics) are usually calledstates (like states of the AmericanConfederacy, 1861–1865) orrepublics (likerepublics ofSerbia andMontenegro within the formerState Union of Serbia and Montenegro, 2003–2006).[5] Those that have a monarchical form of government (confederated monarchies) are defined by various hierarchical ranks (like kingdoms ofIraq andJordan within theHashemite Arab Union in 1958).
Many scholars have claimed that theKingdom of Belgium, a country with a complicated federal structure has adopted some characteristics of a confederation under the pressure of separatist movements, especially inFlanders. For example, C. E. Lagasse declared that Belgium was "near the political system of a Confederation" regarding the constitutional reform agreements between BelgianRegions and betweenCommunities,[6] and the director of theCentre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (CRISP)Vincent de Coorebyter[7] called Belgium "undoubtedly a federation...[with] some aspects of a confederation" inLe Soir.[8] Also inLe Soir, Michel Quévit of theCatholic University of Louvain wrote that the "Belgian political system is already in dynamics of a Confederation".[9][10]
Nevertheless, the Belgian regions and the linguistic communities do not have the autonomy to leave the Belgian state. As such, federal aspects still dominate. Also, for fiscal policy and public finances, the federal state dominates the other levels of government.[citation needed]
The increasingly-confederal aspects of the Belgian Federal State appear to be a political reflection of the profound cultural, sociological and economic differences between theFlemish (Belgians who speak Dutch or Dutch dialects) and theWalloons (Belgians who speak French or French dialects).[11] For example, in the last several decades, over 95% of Belgians have voted for political parties that represent voters from only one community, the separatistN-VA being the party with the most voter support among the Flemish population. Parties that strongly advocate Belgian unity and appeal to voters of both communities usually play only a marginal role in nationwide general elections. The system in Belgium is known asconsociationalism.[12][13]
That makes Belgium fundamentally different from federal countries likeSwitzerland,Canada,Germany andAustralia. National parties receive over 90% of voter support in those countries. The only geographical areas comparable with Belgium within Europe areCatalonia, theBasque Country (both part ofSpain),Northern Ireland andScotland (both part of theUnited Kingdom) and parts ofItaly, where a massive voter turnout for regional (and often separatist) political parties has become the rule in the last decades, and nationwide parties advocating national unity draw around half or sometimes less of the votes.
TheBenelux is a politico-economic union of the states ofBelgium, theNetherlands, andLuxembourg bound through treaties and based on consensus between the representatives of the member states.
They partially share a common foreign policy, especially in regards to their navies through theBeNeSam. The Dutch defence minister (2010–2012)Hans Hillen even said on Belgian radio that it is not impossible that the three armed forces of the member-states could be integrated into "Benelux Armed Forces" one day.
Because of this the Benelux is sometimes labeled as a "kind of confederation" by, for example, BelgianMinister of State Mark Eyskens.[14][15]
Canada is an unusually decentralizedfederal state, not a confederate association of sovereign states,[16] the usual meaning ofconfederation in modern terms. InCanada, the wordconfederation has an additional unrelated meaning.[16] "Confederation" refers to the process of (or the event of) establishing or joining the Canadian federal state.
In modern terminology, Canada is a federation, not a confederation.[17] However, to contemporaries of theConstitution Act, 1867,confederation did not have the same connotation of a weakly-centralized federation.[18]Canadian Confederation generally refers to theConstitution Act, 1867, which formed theDominion of Canada from three of the colonies ofBritish North America, and to the subsequent incorporation of other colonies and territories. Beginning on 1 July 1867, it was initially a self-governingdominion of the British Empire with afederal structure, whose government was led by SirJohn A. Macdonald. The initial colonies involved were theProvince of Canada (becomingQuebec from Canada East, formerly the colony ofLower Canada; andOntario from Canada West, formerly the colony ofUpper Canada),Nova Scotia, andNew Brunswick. Later participants wereManitoba,British Columbia,Prince Edward Island,Alberta andSaskatchewan (the latter two created in 1905 as federated provinces from parts of the directly federally administeredNorthwest Territories, first transferred to the Dominion in 1869 and now possessingdevolved governments as itself,Yukon andNunavut), and finally Newfoundland (nowNewfoundland and Labrador) in 1949. A Canadian judicial constitutional interpretation,Reference Re Secession of Quebec, and a subsequentfederal law, set forth negotiating conditions for aCanadian province (though not aterritory) to leave the Canadian federal state (addressed also bya related Quebec law). Importantly, negotiation would first need triggering by referendum and executing by constitutional amendment using a current amending mechanism of Canada's constitution—meaning that, while not legal under the current constitution, it is democratically feasible without resorting to extralegal means or international involvement.
Its unique nature and the political sensitivities surrounding it cause there to be no common or legal classification for theEuropean Union (EU). However, it bears some resemblance to both a confederation[19] (or a "new" type of confederation) and a federation.[20] The termsupranational union has also been applied. The EU operates common economic policies with thousands ofcommon laws, which enable asingle economic market, acommon customs territory, (mainly)open internal borders, and acommon currency among most member-states. However, unlike a federation, the EU does not have exclusive powers over foreign affairs, defence, taxation, along with the immigration and transit of non-EU nationals. Furthermore, mostEU laws, which have been developed by consensus betweenrelevant national government ministers and then scrutinised and approved or rejected by theEuropean Parliament, must betransposed into national law by national parliaments (in the case ofdirectives). Most collective decisions by member states are taken byweighted majorities and blocking minorities typical of upper houses in federations. On the other hand, the absolute unanimity typical of intergovernmentalism is required only in respect to theCommon Foreign and Security Policy, as well as in situations when ratification of a treaty or of a treaty amendment is required. Such a form may thus be described as a semi-intergovernmental confederation.
However, some academic observers more usually discuss the EU in the terms of it being a federation.[21][22] As the international law professorJoseph H. H. Weiler (of theHague Academy andNew York University) wrote, "Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism".[23] Jean-Michel Josselin and Alain Marciano see theEuropean Court of Justice in Luxembourg City as being a primary force behind the building of a federal legal order for the EU,[22] with Josselin stating that a "complete shift from a confederation to a federation would have required to straight-forwardly replace the principality of the member states vis-à-vis the Union by that of the European citizens. As a consequence, both confederate and federate features coexist in the judicial landscape".[24]Rutgers political science professorR. Daniel Kelemen said: "Those uncomfortable using the 'F' word in the EU context should feel free to refer to it as a quasi-federal or federal-like system. Nevertheless, the EU has the necessary attributes of a federal system. It is striking that while many scholars of the EU continue to resist analyzing it as a federation, most contemporary students of federalism view the EU as a federal system".[25] Thomas Risse and Tanja A. Börzel claim that the "EU only lacks two significant features of a federation. First, the Member States remain the "masters" of the treaties, i.e., they have the exclusive power to amend or change the constitutive treaties of the EU. Second, the EU lacks a real "tax and spend" capacity, in other words, there is no fiscal federalism".[26]
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the chairman of the body of experts commissioned to elaborate a constitutional charter for the European Union, was confronted with strong opposition from the United Kingdom towards including the words "federal" or "federation" in the unratifiedEuropean Constitution and the word was replaced with either "Community" or "Union".[27]
A majority of thePolitical Groups in the European Parliament, including theEPP, theS&D Group andRenew Europe, support a federal model for the European Union. TheECR Group argues for a reformed European Union along confederal lines. TheBrothers of Italy party, led byGiorgia Meloni, campaigns for a confederal Europe. On her election as President of the ECR Party in September 2020 Meloni said, "Let us continue to fight together for a confederate Europe of free and sovereign states".[28][29]
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, historically known as the Iroquois League or the League of Five (later Six) Nations, is the country ofNative Americans (in what is now the United States) andFirst Nations (in what is now Canada) that consists of six nations: theMohawk, theOneida, theOnondaga, theCayuga, theSeneca and theTuscarora. The Six Nations have a representative government known as the Grand Council which is the oldest governmental institution still maintaining its original form in North America.[30] Each clan from the five nations sends chiefs to act as representatives and make decisions for the whole confederation. It has been operating since its foundation in 1142 despite limited international recognition today.
Several of thePre-Columbian cultures of Colombia, such as theMuisca andTairona were composed of loose confederations. The Muisca form of government consisted of two differentrulers that governed a region in the central Andean highlands in present-day Colombia. TheHoa ruled the northern section of the confederation, while theZipa ruled the southern portion.
The twoconstituent republics functioned separately throughout the period of its short existence, and they continued to operate under separate economic policies and to use separate currencies (theeuro was and still is the only legal tender in Montenegro, and thedinar was and still is the legal tender in Serbia). On 21 May 2006, theMontenegrin independence referendum was held. The final official results indicated on 31 May that 55.5% of voters voted in favor of independence. The confederation effectively came to an end after Montenegro's formal declaration of independence on 3 June 2006 and Serbia's formal declaration of independence on 5 June.
Switzerland, officially known as theSwiss Confederation,[31][32][33] is an example of a modern country that traditionally refers to itself as a confederation because the official (and traditional) name of Switzerland in German (the majority language of the Swiss) isSchweizerischeEidgenossenschaft (literally "Swiss Comradeship by Oath"), an expression which was translated into theLatinConfoederatio Helvetica (Helvetic Confederation). It had been a confederacy since its inception in1291 as theOld Swiss Confederacy, which was originally created as an alliance among the valley communities of the centralAlps, until it became a federation in 1848 but it retains the name of Confederacy for reasons of historical tradition. The confederacy facilitated management of common interests (such as freedom from external domination especially from theHabsburg Empire, the development of republican institutions in a Europe dominated by monarchies and free trade), and it ensured peace between the different cultural entities of the area.
After theSonderbund War of1847, when some of the Catholic cantons of Switzerland attempted to set up a separate union (Sonderbund in German) against the Protestant majority, a vote was held and the majority of the cantons approved the new Federal Constitution which changed the political system to one of afederation.[34][35]
In 1999,Russia andBelarus signed a treaty to form a confederation,[36] which came into force on 26 January 2000.[37] Although it was given the nameUnion State, and has some characteristics of a federation, it remains a confederation of two sovereign states.[38] Its existence has been seen as an indication of Russia's political and economic support for theBelarusian government.[39] The confederation was created with the objective of co-ordinating common action on economic integration and foreign affairs.[38] However, many of the treaty's provisions have not yet been implemented.[39] Consequently,The Times, in 2020, described it as "a mostly unimplemented confederation".[40]
On July 6, 2024, at the end of the first summit of theAlliance of Sahel States (AES), the final communiqué announced the creation of a confederation of the three countries of the AES, namelyMali,Burkina Faso andNiger.[41] All three countries were members ofECOWAS, before their memberships were suspended after a successive string of military coups. Subsequently, the countries withdrew from ECOWAS and formed the AES.
Historical confederations (especially those predating the 20th century) may not fit the current definition of a confederation, may be proclaimed as a federation but be confederal (or the reverse), and may not show any qualities that 21st-century political scientists might classify as those of a confederation.
As described in theHathigumpha inscription, On the 11th year, Kharavela broke up a confederacy of Tamil kingdoms, which was becoming a threat to KalingaKharavela.
ATurkic confederation in the eastern part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 9th and 13th centuries. The confederation was dominated by two Turkic nomadic tribes: theKimeks and theKipchaks.
A Turkic confederation in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. The confederation was dominated by two Turkic nomadic tribes: theCumans and theKipchaks.
^Vattel, Emmerich (1758)The Law of Nations, cited in Wood, Gordon (1969)The Creation of the American Republic 1776–1787, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, p.355.
^McCormick, John (2002)Understanding the European Union: a Concise Introduction, Palgrave, Basingstoke, p. 6.
^This was the key feature that distinguished the first American union, under theArticles of Confederation of 1781, from the second, under the currentUS Constitution of 1789.Alexander Hamilton, inFederalist 15, called the absence of directly-effective law in the Articles a "defect" and the "great and radical vice" in the initial system. Madison, James, Hamilton, Alexander and Jay, John (1987)The Federalist Papers, Penguin, Harmondsworth, p. 147.
^FrenchLe confédéralisme n'est pas loin Charles-Etienne Lagasse,Les Nouvelles institutions politiques de la Belgique et de l'Europe, Erasme,Namur 2003, p. 405ISBN2871277834
^French: "La Belgique est (...) incontestablement, une fédération : il n'y a aucun doute (...) Cela étant, la fédération belge possède d'ores et déjà des traits confédéraux qui en font un pays atypique, et qui encouragent apparemment certains responsables à réfléchir à des accommodements supplémentaires dans un cadre qui resterait, vaille que vaille, national." Vincent de Coorebyter "La Belgique (con)fédérale" inLe Soir 24 June 2008
^French:Le système institutionnel belge est déjà inscrit dans une dynamique de type cs,Le Soir, 19 September 2008
^Robert Deschamps, Michel Quévit, Robert Tollet, "Vers une réforme de type confédéral de l'État belge dans le cadre du maintien de l'union monétaire," inWallonie 84, n°2, pp. 95-111
^P.W. Hogg,Constitutional Law of Canada (5th ed. supplemented), para. 5.1(b).
^Waite, Peter B. (1962).The Life and Times of Confederation, 1864–1867. University of Toronto Press. Pages 37–38, footnote 6.
^Kiljunen, Kimmo (2004). The European Constitution in the Making. Centre for European Policy Studies. pp. 21–26.ISBN978-9290794936.
^Burgess, Michael (2000). Federalism and European union: The building of Europe, 1950–2000. Routledge. p. 49.ISBN0415226473. "Our theoretical analysis suggests that the EC/EU is neither a federation nor a confederation in the classical sense. But it does claim that the European political and economic elites have shaped and moulded the EC/EU into a new form of an international organization, namely, a species of "new" confederation".
^Josselin, Jean Michel; Marciano, Alain (2006)."The Political Economy of European Federalism"(PDF). Series: Public Economics and Social Choice. Centre for Research in Economics and Management, University of Rennes 1, University of Caen: 12. WP 2006–07; UMR CNRS 6211. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 19 August 2008.A complete shift from a confederation to a federation would have required to straightforwardly replace the principalship of the member statesvis-à-vis the Union by that of the European citizens. As a consequence, both confederate and federate features coexist in the judicial landscape.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
^Josselin, Jean Michel; Marciano, Alain (2006)."The political economy of European federalism"(PDF). Series: Public Economics and Social Choice. Centre for Research in Economics and Management, University of Rennes 1, University of Caen: 12. WP 2006-07; UMR CNRS 6211. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 19 August 2008.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
^Bednar, Jenna (2001).A Political Theory of Federalism. Cambridge University. pp. 223–270.
^Jennings, F. (1984).The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from Its Beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744. United Kingdom: Norton., p.94
^"Startseite". admin.ch. 13 February 2011. Retrieved19 February 2011.
^Heinz H. F. Eulau (1941). "Theories of Federalism under the Holy Roman Empire".The American Political Science Review.35 (4):643–664.doi:10.2307/1948073.JSTOR1948073.S2CID145527513.
