8 Pros and Cons of Confederacy

Cooperation among the states to deal with significant issues is one of the ideals of confederacy. This is also known to be an alliance in which the government would symbolize a centripetal action. The central government derives its authority from its provinces or states. For the confederacy to work, the confederate states should have an agreement on a particular issue. In order to understand the meaning of this topic, it is best to determine its pros and cons first.

List of Pros of Confederacy

1. Strong Units or States
A confederacy is a united body of provincial units or individual states. Accordingly, the peripheral units are considered stronger in comparison to the union. Although they have coexistence, they maintain separate identities. So, each region or province is referred to as equals, having a strong right in the formation of the central authority.

2. Decentralized Form of Power
In contrast to the unitary government form, the confederacy has the states to act as the decision-making body. Thus, legislation and execution has been divided between the local and provincial governments. While it minimizes the central growth, it should reduce the risk of becoming a tyranny or dominant union.

3. Having a Sense of Sovereignty
Democratic states are known to be sovereign in principle. So in a confederacy, the needs of the people are addressed better and they have the attention of the ruling body. Therefore, this form of government has been true to the notion of being the real sovereign of a particular nation is always the citizens or the people.

4. Cooperative Power
In this form of government, each state is a sovereign and independent unit of the federation. The agreement of these states should be able to make the decision a lot easier. Basically, their flow of power runs from its periphery towards the central government. This simply rests on the principle of cooperation among its confederate states to address common concerns.

List of Cons of Confederacy

1. Weak Central Government
The central government becomes a weak institution as the authority comes from the states. In fact, the member states should have the majority of the legislative authority. Thus, it leaves the center to be helpless in making or enforcing laws.

2. Financial Power
One of the drawbacks of confederacy is that its center doesn’t have any authority over taxation. So, it is not the function of the central unit to levy or appropriate taxes to regulate the model of national revenue.

3. Power Struggle Internally
The authority with each state as separate units would encourage a struggle for political power. States would also have a great possibility to become secessionists which leads to the conflict among the confederacies. Its relations between the Union can be a great source for conflict in the confederation as well.

4. Ability to Sustain
As an unpopular form of government, confederacies do not last long. Since they have been considered as the most decentralized form, its ability to sustain has been in question. This is simple because a confederation is referred to as the transformation period.

About the Author
Brandon Miller has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a seasoned writer who has written over one hundred articles, which have been read by over 500,000 people. If you have any comments or concerns about this blog post, then please contact the Green Garage team here.