The difference between a federation and a confederation
In: 38
They are literally opposites. The prefix “con-” means opposite, “contradict” “contrary” “pros and cons.”
A federation has a strong central authority, a federal government, whereas a confederation has little or no federal government. The individual bodies that make up the confederacy have more power than the central body.
The US’s first constitution was the Articles of Confederation, and had a very weak central government which couldn’t levy taxes or raise an army on its own. It relied on the states to choose how much to supply. It was deeply flawed, which is why it was replaced with the constitution we have now, which made a far stronger federal government.
The South during the US civil war argued that the federal government shouldn’t be able to control whether or not they should be allowed to own slaves, so they formed a Confederacy so they wouldn’t need to worry about that, the state’s laws could override the federal ones. They still had a federal government, but a much weaker one.
The Iriquois tribes of New York were a Confederacy. It was several small tribes that more or less simply agreed to not go to war with each other.
The UN is a Confederacy, because member states can essentially ignore whatever decisions they make. It’s up to other member states to take action against the non compliant states (like sanctions against Russia over their actions in Ukraine)
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