Political union

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about unified state entities or polities, or the merging of these. For organisations formed to bargain for workers (or labour), see Trade union. For other uses, see Unionism (disambiguation).

A political union is a type of

police departments, and share power with the federal government, for whom external sovereignty, military forces, and foreign affairs are usually reserved. The union is recognised internationally as a single political entity. A political union may also be called a legislative union or state union.[3]

A union may be effected in many forms, broadly categorized as:

Incorporating union

In an incorporating union a new state is created, the former states being entirely dissolved into the new state (although some aspects may be preserved; see below).

Incorporating unions have been present throughout much of history, such as when:

Preservation of interests

Nevertheless, a full incorporating union may preserve the laws and institutions of the former states, as happened in the creating of the United Kingdom. This may be simply a matter of practice or to comply with a guarantee given in the terms of the union.

Union of Brittany and France) in which a guarantee was given for the continuance of laws and of the Estates of Brittany (a guarantee revoked in 1789 at the French Revolution).[6] The assurance that institutions are preserved in a union of states can also occur as states realize that, whilst a power imbalance exists (such as between the economic conditions of Scotland and England prior to the Acts of Union 1707), it is not so great that it precludes the ability of concessions to be made. The Treaty of Union for creating the unified Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 contained a guarantee of the continuance of the civil laws and the existing courts in Scotland[7] (a continuing guarantee), which was significant for both parties. The Scottish, despite economic troubles during the Seven Ill Years preceding the union, still had remaining negotiating power.[8]

This marks a delineation of states that are able to ensure preservation of interests: there has to be some mutually beneficial reasoning behind the formal or informal preservation of interests. In the

Scottish law distinct from English law.[11]

Incorporating annexation

In an incorporating annexation a state or states is united to and dissolved in an existing state, whose legal existence continues.

Annexation may be voluntary or, more frequently, by conquest.

Incorporating annexations have occurred at various points in history, such as when:

Federal annexation

Federal annexation occurs when a unitary state becomes a federated unit of another existing state, the former continuing its legal existence. The new federated state thus ceases to be a state in international law but retains its legal existence in domestic law, subsidiary to the federal authority.[13]

Prominent historical federal annexations include:

Mixed unions

The unification of Italy involved a mixture of unions. The kingdom consolidated around the

Vittorio Emanuele II of Sardinia and his legitimate heirs.[15]

The unification of Germany began in earnest when the Kingdom of Prussia annexed numerous petty states in 1866.[16]

Historical unions

Supranational and continental unions

See also: Supranational union and Continental union

In addition to regional movements,

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum,[19] and the Pacific Islands Forum.[20]

Academic analysis

The political position of the United Kingdom is often discussed,[21][22] as well as former states like Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006), the Soviet Union (1922–1991) and the United Arab Republic (1958–1961).

1839 Report, in discussing the proposed union of Upper and Lower Canada
, he says:

Two kinds of union have been proposed – federal and legislative. By the first, the separate legislature of each province would be preserved in its present form and retain almost all its present attributes of internal legislation, the federal legislature exercising no power save in those matters which may have been expressly ceded to it by the constituent provinces. A legislative union would imply a complete incorporation of the provinces included in it under one legislature, exercising universal and sole legislative authority over all of them in exactly the same manner as the Parliament legislates alone for the whole of the British Isles.[23]

However, unification is not merely voluntary. To meet this requirement, we need to have a balance of power between the two or more states, which can create an equal monetary, economic, social and cultural environment. We need also to take in account that those states eligible to unify must agree to a transition from anarchy, where there is no sovereignty above the state level, to hierarchy.

States can decide to enter a voluntary union as a solution for existing problems and to face possible threats, such as environmental threats for instance. The task of triggering a political crisis and to get the attention of the citizens toward the unification's necessity is in the hands of the elites. Despite it being quite rare, in some cases it works (see Old Swiss Confederacy and the confederation of the United States), while in most of the cases it turns to be a failure or leads to a forced unification (Italy, URSS) where the unified states are deeply unequal.

From a realist perspective, small states can unify in order to face strong states or to conquer weak ones. One of the reasons to seek unification to a stronger state besides a common threat can be a situation of negligence or ignorance on behalf of the weak state[24] which is, to simplify it, desperate and almost derelict.

According to a 1975 study by University of Rochester political scientist William Riker, unions were motivated by security threats.[25]

According to Ryan Griffiths, all instances of mutually wilful unification from 1816 onwards were between states that spoke the same languages.[26][dubious – discuss]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In a different use of the term, unionism is used for membership or support of labour or trade unions. The term pro-union or -unity is sometimes used for political unionism instead of "unionism".[1]

References

  1. ^ "unionism (n.)". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ^ "Political Union". TheFreeDictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  3. ISSN 1865-5831
    .
  4. ^ Dullien, Sebastian; Torreblanca, José Ignacio (December 2012). "What is political union?" (PDF). European Council on Foreign Relations. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-08-19. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  5. ISSN 0140-2382
    .
  6. ^ What is political union?. 12 December 2012. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  7. ^ ". . . that no Alteration be made in Laws which concern private Right, except for evident Utility of the Subjects within Scotland" – Article XVIII of the Treaty of Union
  8. ^ "The course of negotiations :: Act of Union 1707". Parliament UK. 2009-07-21. Archived from the original on 2009-07-21. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  9. S2CID 220848652
    .
  10. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived
    from the original on 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  11. ^ Techau, Jan. "Political Union Now!". Carnegie Europe. Archived from the original on 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  12. ^ a b "Union of European Federalists (UEF): Federal Political Union". www.federalists.eu. Archived from the original on 2016-04-14. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  13. ^ "Addresses Against Incorporating Union, 1706-1707". $USD. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  14. ^ "Unification of Italian States - Countries - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Archived from the original on 2011-06-02. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  15. S2CID 145245653
    .
  16. ^ "Unification of German States - Countries - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  17. ^ "Overview of Continental Unions". WiseMee. 2019-07-08. Archived from the original on 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  18. ^ Allison-Reumann, Laura; Murray, Philomena (2017-06-22). "Should the EU be considered a model for ASEAN?". Pursuit - The University of Melbourne. Archived from the original on 2017-07-02. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  19. ^ J Bamber, Greg (2005-10-26). "What Context does the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) Provide for Employment Relations?" (PDF). Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-08-20. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  20. ^ Robertson, Robbie. "Regionalism in the Pacific: A New Development Strategy" (PDF). The University of the South Pacific. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  21. ^ "United Kingdom". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006-02-16. Archived from the original on 2006-02-16.
  22. ISBN 978-0-521-59844-6
    : "... explaining how the United Kingdom has evolved, the author explores a number of key themes including: the steps to political union, ..."
  23. ^ Lord Durham, Report on the Affairs of British North America (London: 1839); reprinted, Charles Prestwood Lucas (ed.), Lord Durham's report on the affairs of British North America (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912), vol. 2, p. 304.
  24. OCLC 696773008
    .
  25. ^ Riker, William H. 1975. "Federalism." in Fred I. Greenstein and Nelson W. Polsby (eds.), Handbook of Political Science. Addison-Wesley.
  26. ISSN 1354-5078
    .

Further reading

  • Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore. 2003. The Size of Nations. MIT Press.
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