Federalism in the history of France and the American case

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is getting back to you following the comments made by former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on federalism via the ITV NC channel, a summary of which we sent you earlier this week.

As a reminder,  the former Prime Minister believed that the federal form constituted a difficulty for France in moving from a unitary Republic to a federation.

This  notion of federalism, which comes from Anglo-Saxon law, has nevertheless been both adulated and fought against in the history of France,  as you will see by reading our  article on federalism in the history of France on our site at the following link  :  Federalism in the history of France – APROFED

You will be able to see for yourselves that at different periods in its history, federalism has aroused interest on the part of France:

–  from the Revolution  when it was acclaimed by the Girondins and provincials as part of the  establishment of the 1st Republic , it was fought by the Montagnards to establish a unitary and centralized system,

–  at the beginning of the 20th century  with the push of  federalists wishing to create regions  in order to decentralize the power concentrated in Paris. Fought for separatism, the regions were nevertheless established in 1956, acquiring a status in 1982 and then returning to the constitution, a hundred years later, in 2003,

–  after the Second World War with the creation of the French Union and then of the Community  on the basis of the English Commonwealth with a view to avoiding the disintegration of the French Empire and the independence of its colonies,

–  in the 1980s and 1990s  in order to find a solution to the conflict described as a “civil war”  in New Caledonia .

However,  France,  as the former Prime Minister recalls,  considers federalism to be a problem for its Constitution and a possible risk of disintegration of its Republic.

France considers itself between a rock and a hard place .  The anvil represents the downward pressure of its populations,  both overseas and from French regions such as Corsica, Alsace, Brittany, the Basque Country, etc.,  aspiring to a new relationship with the central government  in order to offer better living conditions to their populations through decision-making as close as possible to them. The  State’s refusal of this request led some communities to express the desire for independence and thus separation from the Republic.

The  hammer represents the pressure France is subjected to from above by the European Union itself, which  currently has a confederal status and is increasingly moving towards a fully-fledged federal status, towards a federal Europe, forcing its members, which operate in a unitary form, into a balancing act in order to retain the little sovereign power they have left.  The functioning of the European Union, which directly subsidises the regions  and not the Member States, thus bypassing central governments,  does not help matters .

And yet, several central states such as Italy and Spain , although in the same situation as France today,  have made known their desire to move towards a full federal Europe .  France continues to obstruct this development in order to preserve its sovereignty, which it has shared  for a long time since the creation of the EU.

This blocking attitude unfortunately does not bode well. History proves it.  By wanting to hold on to their colonies at all costs, countries like Spain and Portugal have fallen into authoritarian regimes, whose dictatorships have failed to hold on to their colonies.  Losing their ideological foundations and thus the support of their populations, fed up with authoritarian excesses, these countries’  only solution was to mourn the loss of their empires and better focus on building the European Union, designed with an architecture eager to avoid war, namely no longer national but federal.

Today, Spain , through its GDP, is the 13th largest economic power in the world . And although, like the rest of the Latin countries such as Portugal and Italy, which have officially adopted a rather autonomist and regionalist state structure, the  majority of institutional experts believe that these countries are in reality federations that are unaware of themselves, like France.

This is why  the APROFED association urges France to review its position on federalism by finalizing and adopting this status for New Caledonia and for all the Overseas Territories by reactivating the Community  and the related articles within the Constitution  and then taking the definitive step not only with its regions but also with the European Union by finalizing its transformation into a federal Europe  of which France would become a federated State.

It is appropriate here to  recall the birth of the United States of America close to the current situation of the European Union, which in 1777 had the status of a confederation . There was no supranational federal state. Divergences existed between states and personalities for the federal constitution and those for the constitution of a unitary state.  Rather than choosing between the two, the Americans decided to implement both at the same time , by retaining states with their own powers at their level and creating above a more centralized federal state, thus uniting all the other states within it, also with its own powers, giving birth to the United States of America and the model of American federalism. This  evolution was necessary given the situation of the  American  confederation which:

– had no income of his own,

– could not raise taxes,

– was dependent on contributions from the States of the Union,

– presented divergent interests between its States or even rivalries,

– was affected by social unrest and riots,

– had difficulty repaying his debts.

Its elements strangely recall the situation of the EU today. This is why, in order to overcome this,  the confederation evolved into a federation ten years later in 1787  (see  Articles of Confederation — Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) )

The stubbornness in pushing back the evidence risks bringing authoritarian, undemocratic parties to the highest offices in the near future, not only in the French state but also within the European Union,  with the tragic consequences that this would engender, namely an  implosion of the EU, a return to nationalism and war between European states . If this catastrophic scenario were to occur,  France could be held responsible.

In short, the time of empires is over, and that of nation states is also coming to an end. Federalism thus remains the only solution  for the association that would thus give new hope not only to today’s moribund France but also to the EU  , thereby allowing it to focus on issues just as important, if not more so, namely global warming.

Federalism would thus make it possible to replace what we have today, namely “an isolated France in a dispersed Europe” with “federated regions in a federal France and in a federal Europe.” (cf.  What if Martinique became a federated state in a federal France and Europe? – Federalist Press (pressefederaliste.eu) )

Wishing you a good read and reminding you that federalism is the only solution.

The APROFED association