Federation

Federation. When several states, otherwise independent, bind themselves together by a treaty, so as to present to the external world the aspect of a single state, without wholly renouncing their individual powers of internal self-government, they are said to form a Federation. The contracting parties are sovereign states acting through their representatives; and the extent to which the central overrules the local legislatures is fixed by the terms of the contract. In so far as the local sovereignty is renounced, and the central power becomes sovereign within the limits of the federated states, the federation approaches to the character of a Union; and the only renunciation of sovereignty which a federation as such necessarily implies consists in abandoning the power which each separate state otherwise would possess of forming independent relations with foreign states. 'There are,' says Mr Mill, 'two different modes of organising a federal union. The federal authorities may represent the governments solely, and their acts may be obligatory only on the governments as such, or they may have the power of enacting laws and issuing orders which are binding directly on individual citizens.' The former was the plan of the German so-called confederation, and of the Swiss constitution previous to 1847. 'The other principle is that of the existing constitution of the United States, and has been adopted by the Swiss confederacy. The federal congress of the American Union is a substantive part of the government of every individual state. Within the limits of its attributions, it makes laws which are obeyed by every citizen individually, executes them through its own officers, and enforces them by its own tribunals. This is the only principle which has been found or which is even likely to produce an effective federal government. A union between the governments only is a mere alliance, and subject to all the contingencies which render alliances precarious.' Federalism is opposed to Centralisation (q.v.). See GOVERNMENT, and UNITED STATES; and for schemes of federating the British colonies in an imperial confederation, see COLONY.