Confederation
A confederation is a political union of sovereign states or chiefdoms united for purposes of common action. 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 have an implicit right of secession. 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".
Under a confederation, compared to a federal state, the central authority is relatively weak. 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. Also, decision-making in the general government usually proceeds by consensus, 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 are usually called states or republics. Those that have a monarchical form of government are defined by various hierarchical ranks.Examples
Belgium
Many scholars have claimed that the Kingdom of Belgium, a country with a complicated federal structure has adopted some characteristics of a confederation under the pressure of separatist movements, especially in Flanders. For example, C. E. Lagasse declared that Belgium was "near the political system of a Confederation" regarding the constitutional reform agreements between Belgian Regions and between Communities, and the director of the Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques Vincent de Coorebyter called Belgium "undoubtedly a federation... some aspects of a confederation" in Le Soir. Also in Le Soir, Michel Quévit of the Catholic University of Louvain wrote that the "Belgian political system is already in dynamics of a Confederation".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.
The increasingly-confederal aspects of the Belgian Federal State appear to be a political reflection of the profound cultural, sociological and economic differences between the Flemish and the Walloons. For example, in the last several decades, over 95% of Belgians have voted for political parties that represent voters from only one community, the separatist N-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 as consociationalism.
That makes Belgium fundamentally different from federal countries like Switzerland, Canada, Germany and Australia. National parties receive over 90% of voter support in those countries. The only geographical areas comparable with Belgium within Europe are Catalonia, the Basque Country, Northern Ireland and Scotland and parts of Italy, where a massive voter turnout for regional 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.
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. "Confederation" refers to the process of establishing or joining the Canadian federal state.In modern terminology, Canada is a federation, not a confederation. 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, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Later participants were Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta and Saskatchewan, and finally Newfoundland 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 to leave the Canadian federal state. 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 make it difficult to apply a common or legal classification to its structure. However, it bears some resemblance to both a confederation and a federation. 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, 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. 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.However, some academic observers more usually discuss the EU in the terms of it being a federation. As the international law professor Joseph H. H. Weiler wrote, "Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism". Jean-Michel Josselin and Alain Marciano see the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City as being a primary force behind the building of a federal legal order for the EU, 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". Rutgers political science professor R. 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". 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".
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 unratified European Constitution and the word was replaced with either "Community" or "Union".
A majority of the Political Groups in the European Parliament, including the EPP, the S&D Group and Renew Europe, support a federal model for the European Union. The ECR Group argues for a reformed European Union along confederal lines. The Brothers of Italy party, led by Giorgia 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".