A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states or chiefdoms united for purposes of common action.Oxford English Dictionary Usually created by a treaty, 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 of intergovernmentalism, 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 to international organisations while other confederations with stricter rules may resemble federal systems. These elements of such confederations, the international organization and federalist perspective, has been combined as supranational unions.
Since the member states of a confederation retain their sovereignty, they are generally understood to have the implicit right of secession, although in practice this right may be constrained by legal arrangements or increasing centralization that makes the confederation functionally similar to a federation. The political philosopher Emmerich 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".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.
Under a confederation, compared to a federal state, the central authority is relatively weak.McCormick, John (2002) Understanding the European Union: a Concise Introduction, Palgrave, Basingstoke, p. 6. 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.This was the key feature that distinguished the first American union, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781, from the second, under the current US Constitution of 1789. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist 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. 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 of regional integration.
Confederated states
In terms of internal structure, every confederal state is composed of two or more constituent states, referred to as confederated states. Regarding their political systems, confederated states can have republican or monarchical forms of government. Those that have a republican form (confederated republics) are usually called states (like states of the American Confederacy, 1861–1865) or republics (like republics of Serbia and Montenegro within the former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, 2003–2006). Those that have a monarchical form of government (confederated monarchies) are defined by various hierarchical ranks (like kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan within the Hashemite Arab Union in 1958).
Examples Belgium The Kingdom of Belgium is constitutionally a federal state composed of three Communities and three Regions. It evolved from a unitary state through successive state reforms beginning in 1970 and was formally designated a federal state in 1993. The federal state, the Communities and the Regions are legally on an equal footing within their respective areas of competence, rather than forming a general hierarchy in which federal law automatically takes precedence.
Belgium is nevertheless sometimes described in academic literature as an atypical or sui generis federation with some confederal characteristics. Constitutional scholar Patricia Popelier notes that Belgium is commonly described as a federal system with "confederal traits", particularly because of the extensive autonomy of its federated entities and the formal and informal veto mechanisms of the major language groups in federal decision-making. More recent scholarship likewise characterizes Belgium as an atypical, centrifugal federation with far-reaching autonomy for the Communities and Regions. In the traditional constitutional-law definition, however, a confederation consists of sovereign states joined in a treaty-based association, whereas Belgium's Communities and Regions are constituent entities of a single federal state.
Belgian fiscal federalism likewise does not establish a simple hierarchy in which the federal government dominates the federated entities. The OECD notes that the federal, regional and community governments are not legally subordinate to one another in budgetary policy. The Sixth State Reform increased the fiscal autonomy of the Regions, although public debt and deficits remain concentrated to a significant extent at the federal level.
Belgian politics is strongly segmented along linguistic lines. Most political parties operate primarily within one language community, and academic research describes Belgium as having a split party system; the PVDA/PTB is a partial exception to the absence of statewide parties. Belgium is also widely studied as a consociational democracy, in which power-sharing and minority-protection mechanisms have been used to accommodate linguistic divisions.
Canada
Canada is an unusually decentralized federal state, not a confederate association of sovereign states, the usual meaning of confederation in modern terms. In Canada, the word confederation has an additional unrelated meaning.Eugene Forsey, How Canadians Govern Themselves, 9th ed. (Ottawa: Library of Parliament / Bibliothèque du Parlement, Catalogue No. X9‑11/2016E, 2016‑03), , pp. 7, 29. French version published as Les Canadiens et leur système de gouvernement, no de catalogue X9‑11/2016F, First edition published in 1980. "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.P.W. Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada (5th ed. supplemented), para. 5.1(b). However, to contemporaries of the Constitution Act, 1867, confederation did not have the same connotation of a weakly-centralized federation. Canadian Confederation generally refers to the Constitution Act, 1867, which formed the Dominion of Canada from three of the colonies of British North America, and to the subsequent incorporation of other colonies and territories. Beginning on 1 July 1867, it was initially a self-governing dominion of the British Empire with a federal structure, whose government was led by Sir John A. Macdonald. The initial colonies involved were the Province of Canada (becoming Quebec from Canada East, formerly the colony of Lower Canada; and Ontario from Canada West, formerly the colony of Upper Canada), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Later participants were Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta and Saskatchewan (the latter two created in 1905 as federated provinces from parts of the directly federally administered Northwest Territories, first transferred to the Dominion in 1869 and now possessing devolved governments as itself, Yukon and Nunavut), and finally Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) in 1949. A Canadian judicial constitutional interpretation, Reference Re Secession of Quebec, and a subsequent federal law, set forth negotiating conditions for a Canadian province (though not a territory) to leave the Canadian federal state (addressed also by a 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.
European Union The unique nature and the political sensitivities surrounding the European Union (EU) make it difficult to apply a common or legal classification to its structure. However, it bears some resemblance to both a confederationKiljunen, Kimmo (2004). The European Constitution in the Making. Centre for European Policy Studies. pp. 21–26. . (or a "new" type of confederation) and a federation.Burgess, Michael (2000). Federalism and European union: The building of Europe, 1950–2000. Routledge. p. 49. . "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". The term supranational union has also been applied. The EU operates common economic policies with thousands of common laws, which enable a single economic market, a common customs territory, (mainly) open internal borders, and a common 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, most EU laws, which have been developed by consensus between relevant national government ministers and then scrutinised and approved or rejected by the European Parliament, must be transposed into national law by national parliaments (in the case of directives). Most collective decisions by member states are taken by weighted 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 the Common 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.