Confederation

Confederation Government

The governmental system of a confederation usually includes representatives from each state who serve in a common or central legislature. The central government usually works together to address issues that affect all of the members of the confederation, such as maintaining peace treaties, organizing mutual defence, proposing laws, and implementing policies that impact the confederation. But the central government is usually pretty weak and tries not to interfere in the states' governments.

Each state usually has its own independent government, which has much more power than the central government. For example, a nation in a confederation might have its own executive and legislative branch to create policies related to finances, social welfare, and infrastructure. But they come together with the other members of the confederation to address issues that impact all of them like economics, commerce, and security.

Confederation vs. Federation

One major hallmark of a confederation is that the central governing body gets its power from the individual members. It doesn't necessarily have power on its own, nor can it coerce or force individual states to do things. So, the central government is weak while the state governments are strong.

A federation is usually the opposite - the central (or federal) government is strong while the state governments are relatively weak. The federal government maintains authority and can pass it back to the states as needed. States have power in some areas related to their own borders, but the laws and regulations passed by the federal government trump state laws and regulations.

Today, the United States is an example of a federation. The Constitution gave the federal government authority over the whole country, while state governments have authority over their own borders.

Confederation in Early American History

So why did the colonies first want to create a confederation if it didn't end up working out? To understand, we have to go all the way back to the beginning of colonization in the 16th and 17th centuries. Each colony had its own charter from the king or queen. Each colony, from Virginia to Massachusetts, was settled separately, so they all had their own form of government before they came together for the Revolutionary War. The identity as separate colonies rather than a unified land carried through to the Articles of Confederation.

Each colony had its own identity and charter from England. Source: Wikimedia Commons CC-PD-Mark

When the colonies did come together for the Revolutionary War, they were united by a common enemy in England rather than a common identity. When it came time to talk about creating a new country, all of the states wanted to keep the same power and sovereignty that they had before the war.

Also, the colonists were very cautious about a strong central government because they associated it with the English monarchy and abusive taxes that caused the Revolution in the first place. They didn't want to be forced to pay taxes to a distant central government anymore.

All of this came together and influenced the new country to form a confederation under the Articles of Confederation. This way, each state could maintain its sovereignty while creating a central government that would help win the war for independence.

Articles of Confederation

The first framework for the US government (even before the Constitution) was the Articles of Confederation. Benjamin Franklin was one of the first framers to propose a confederation between the states. He proposed the Albany Plan to join the states together under a common government while maintaining each state's sovereignty.

The Iroquois Confederacy

Franklin didn't come up with the idea for a confederation all on his own - he learned about the benefits of a confederation from the indigenous tribes in New York. The Iroquois Confederacy joined five tribes together: the Onandaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, and Cayuga. He brought the principles of the Iroquois Confederacy to Congress when he proposed the Albany Plan.

Summary of the Articles of Confederation

True to the colonies' wishes, the Articles of Confederation created a system where the states maintained pretty much the same amount of power as they did before the creation of the new country.

• Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government could:
  • Establish Congress
  • Declare wars
  • Engage in foreign diplomacy
• The federal government could not:
  • Levy taxes or require states to provide funding
  • Regulate commerce within states

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress helped resolve some disputes over whether certain states would be allowed to expand westward and take slavery with them. They also successfully won the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, the successes stopped there.

Confederation in the Constitution

The confederation sounded like a great idea for maintaining state sovereignty and creating a new country at the same time. But the Articles weren't strong enough to unite the states or keep everyone on the same page.

The federal government didn't have any money and the states refused to pay up. Some soldiers who fought in the war still hadn't been paid. The states also bickered over border disputes and slavery.

Finally, in 1787, Congress realized that it needed to address the issues in the Articles of Confederation. During the Constitutional Convention, the delegates scrapped the idea of a confederation of the states in favour of a federation with a strong central government that would unite the country. The new Constitution gave the federal government some important new powers to help hold the country together.

• The Constitution gave the federal government new strength through:
  • The creation of the Executive Branch and the Presidency
  • The creation of the Judicial Branch and the Supreme Court
  • The creation of the bicameral system in Congress
  • The authority to levy taxes
  • Supremacy over states (meaning that the federal laws trumped state laws)

Why didn't a confederacy work for the United States?

A confederacy can work really well, especially when the goal is to prevent fighting among the various states! We can see some important successes in the European Union and the Iroquois Confederacy. Both examples show states with a history of war come together under a confederation with the goal of peace.

The United States had a different goal - they weren't forming a confederacy because of fighting among themselves, but rather to fight against England. When the country did gain independence, the goal of coming together to fight England wasn't strong enough to keep the country together. The states had a long history of individual identities and governing structures, so they didn't want to voluntarily provide funding or power to the central government. They ultimately needed to create a stronger federal government to provide a central identity and unifying force.