September 3rd, 2002, 4:48 pm
I agree that confederation is not an optimal form of political organization, but it can work well in some cases. Consider the Benelux countries which maintain ethnic and cultural diversity, while cooperating on most economic and foreign policy questions. Yugoslavia worked much better than the alternative, either before or after. Confederation status might solve otherwise intractable problems like China/Taiwan, Israel/Palestine, Quebec/Canada, UK/Northern Ireland/Southern Ireland as well as complex problems in India and Indonesia and satisfy stateless minorities like Kurds and Macedonians.Nationalism, the idea that people who share a common language and cultural memory should have their own state, often conflicts with economic and poltical realities. If you make the nations too small, they are not self-sufficient. Many families and even individuals require joint citizenship. Drawing borders is a huge problem because populations overlap geographically.If you make the nations too big, they are rent by factionalism. Governments must deal with religious and cultural minorities.On top of these factors, many powerful organizations have a self-interest in sabotaging nation-formation. Neighbors may want a weak, fragmented set of countries that can be easily controlled. Commercial interests may want a corrupt administration, or to separate economic resources from large numbers of people. Religons may want maximum resources for their adherents.Confederation is a flexible alternative that should at least be considered.
Last edited by
Aaron on September 2nd, 2002, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.