Superstate

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A superstate is defined as "a large and powerful state formed when several smaller countries unite",[1] or "A large and powerful state formed from a federation or union of nations",[2] or "a hybrid form of polity that combines features of ancient empires and modern states."[3] This is distinct from the concept of superpower, although these are sometimes seen together.[4]

History

In the early 20th century, "superstate" had a similar definition as today's

United States of America as "an example of a complete and perfect superstate".[5]

In

Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith, described the anticipated world government of that religion as the "world’s future super-state" with the Baháʼí Faith as the "State Religion of an independent and Sovereign Power."[6]

In the 1970s, academic literature used the term "superstate" to indicate a particularly rich and powerful state, in a similar fashion to the term

The prediction proved groundless.

In contemporary political debate, especially the one centred on the

United States of Europe
. For instance,
Glyn Morgan contrasts the perspective of a "European superstate" to the ones of "a Europe of nation-states" and of "a post-sovereign European polity".[9]: 202  In her definition, a "European superstate is nothing more than a sovereign state - a tried and tested type of polity that predominates in the modern world - operating on a European wide scale",[9]: 204  i.e., "a unitary European state".[9]: ix  Especially after the European debt crisis, economic literature started to discuss the role of European union as a European superstate. In particular,[10] they compared the emergence of a debt union to the federal structure of Germany.

The term was famously used by Margaret Thatcher in her 1988 Bruges speech, when she decried the perspective of "a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels",[11] and has since entered the eurosceptic lexicon. Tony Blair argued in 2000 that he welcomed an EU as a "superpower, not a superstate".[12]

In a 2022 study, Alasdair Roberts argues that superstates should be construed as hybrid forms of political organization: "Every superstate carries the burdens of statehood, that is, the duties of intensive governance and respect for human rights that are carried by all modern states. But superstates also carry the burdens of empire, principally the burden of holding together a large and diverse population spread across a vast territory. Superstates are distinguished from ordinary states by problems of governance that are intensified by scale, diversity, and complexity".[13]: 18  In this view, a superstate need not be highly centralized, just as some empires were not highly centralized. Thus is it possible to describe the European Union as a superstate without conceding that is a "centralized, unitary leviathan".[13] : 121 

Fictional superstates

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Superstate", Cambridge dictionaries online
  2. ^ "superstate - Definition of superstate in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries - English. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012.
  3. ^ Roberts, Alasdair. Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2022), 122.
  4. ^ Roberts, Alasdair. Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century. (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2022), 17.
  5. ^ Edward A. Harriman, The League of Nations a Rudimentary Superstate, American Political Science Review / Volume 21 / Issue 01 / February 1927, pp 137-140
  6. – via Bahá’í Reference Library.
  7. ^ WICKRAMASINGHE, V. K. (June 1973). "JAPAN — THE EMERGING SUPERSTATE ? Some Thoughts on Herman Kahn". The Developing Economies. 11 (2): 196–210.
  8. .
  9. ^
  10. ^ Erkut, Burak (24 December 2015). "A Super Indebted European Superstate". Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research. 10: 4–10 – via ResearchGate.
  11. ^ Margaret Thatcher, Speech to the College of Europe ("The Bruges Speech"), 20 September 1988
  12. ^ Stephen Haseler, Super-State: The New Europe and Its Challenge to America, p. 85
  13. ^ .