F

Federation

A means of ordering political space, consisting of a cluster of states or territories

with limited sovereignty, joined together by a central, orfederal, governmental

authority. A condition of federalism usually implies a sharing of power between

the central authority and the constituent units. The federation is typically organ-

ized by a constitution or treaty that defines the relative assignment of political

power. In general, responsibilities for national defense, treaty agreements with for-

eign powers, and the regulation of trade with other countries, along with other

related tasks, fall to the federal government. The individual states are allowed to

establish statutes governing both tort and criminal law, but this legislation cannot

contravene law at the federal level, and in particular, cannot violate conditions

and stipulations set forth in the constitution.

In general, the distinction between a federation and aconfederationis that the

political units that compose the latter are typically joined together on a voluntary

basis to pursue mutual interests, or to increase their collective security against

external threats. The Confederate States of America, otherwise known as the

“South” during the American Civil War, was one such confederation. Slavery

was the issue that triggered the crisis, but the war was actually fought over the

question of whether the federation represented by the United States of America

was a voluntary affiliation. In other words, did individual states have the authority

to secede from the federation, or were they compelled to remain a part of it? The

question was settled only after the deaths of more than 600,000 Americans.

The actual balance of authority between the states and federal authority is rarely

so starkly resolved, however, and the matter of states’ rights versus federal power

and even which level of government has jurisdiction is one that is frequently in

question, and is often adjudicated in the federal courts, in many cases in front of

the U.S. Supreme Court. For example, at the time of this writing (2011), two major

controversial issues with constitutional ramifications have appeared on the Ameri-

can political landscape and, once they are resolved, will likely affect the balance of

power in the federation. These issues are addressed in the Patient Protection and

Affordable Care Act (PPACA), referred to in the media as “Obamacare”; and the

matter of illegalmigrationinto the southwestern states of the United States. In

the case of the PPACA, the statute was passed into law at the federal level in

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