Abstract
Nowadays, all the states of the world are facing a new reality that they are not capable to cope with or even to understand properly: globalization. The concept of nation-state that was first configured during the Peace of Westphalia in the seventeenth century no longer has answers to the globalized problems such as environmental or economic problems. For instance, the high degree of degradation of the global environment cannot be solved by any nation-state or even by a great group of them. It is necessary that all of them, or at least the majority, work on the same direction in order to reduce the global pollution levels.
Globalization is an ongoing process where there is no turning back. That means that there is no real possibility of a “deglobalization process”. Globalization demands a new way of thinking that could overcome the limitations of the nation-state. The global economic crisis is a perfect example of global problems that we must face. No nation-state, not even the superpower that is USA, is capable of dealing with the consequences of this global crisis. Moreover, the European Union, a nation-states association of political integration, shows its debilities to face the global economic problems, and the G-formations are even unable to find out global solutions. The crisis shows clearly that there are some global powers, like “the markets”, that had overflowed the power of the nation-state and the continental associations of nation-states, like the EU, within the framework of a new global capitalism.
This paper analyses the global federalism as a possible theoretical solution for the global economic crisis and other global problems. If federalism has made possible along the history to resolve some problems that could not be solved by the lower levels of political organization, maybe it could also be a formula that helps the nation-state to control the global powers and the global capitalism that are even menacing the viability of the nation-state. The nation-states of the world would need to work together to establish a new global federal organization system, following the constitutionalism theory, that could be capable of dealing with global matters, regulating the global economy and, more importantly, keeping the world peace.
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Notes
- 1.
Point. I.5 of the United Nation Millennium Declaration (2000): “We believe that the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world’s people. For while globalization offers great opportunities, at present its benefits are very unevenly shared, while its costs are unevenly distributed. We recognize that developing countries and countries with economies in transition face special difficulties in responding to this central challenge. Thus, only through broad and sustained efforts to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity in all its diversity, can globalization be made fully inclusive and equitable. These efforts must include policies and measures, at the global level, which correspond to the needs of developing countries and economies in transition and are formulated and implemented with their effective participation”. Singer (2004).
- 2.
de Cabo Martín (2010): “Lo real de la globalización-y aunque no se pueda reducir a ello, pero es el aspecto más decisivo y el que aquí ahora importa- en el sentido económico financiero, no es tanto la expansión del capitalismo, que siempre ha tenido en ello su expansión más profunda (que por otra parte es de ‘subsistencia’, pues, como es conocido, sólo puede subsistir ‘acumulando’, en su sentido más propio, es decir, creciendo económicamente de manera continuada) cuando el crecimiento exponencial (Sousa) de las interrelaciones transfronterizas, entre otras razones porque el poder político (estatal) lo permite y posibilita, de manera que también puede definirse la globalización como la liberación del Poder económico del Poder político, la Economía de la Política.”
- 3.
Venter (2010): “From a legal, especially constitutional law point of view, globalization procedures serious challenge to conventional premises: the axiomatic notion of the nation-states as the cornerstone of the territorial sovereignty of almost 200 states of the world as it developed over centuries, is rapidly losing definition, the state´s perceived dominance as provider of the of the framework within law is made, administrated, adjudicated and enforced is increasingly being challenged (…)”. de Vega García (1998): “(…) pero se trata de un Estado que sometido a presiones y embates de notable envergadura, ve por doquier disminuidos sus ámbitos de actuación y comprometidas las propias razones de su existencia” and pp. 15: “Nada tiene de particular que ante tan patéticas circunstancias, en las que el Estado se esfuma progresivamente, la sociedad civil se descompone y las ciudades ven eliminados los espacios públicos donde en nombre de la justicia pudieran formular sus reivindicaciones, surge la necesidad y se plantea el problema de cómo definir y donde situar nuevamente las viejas categorías del Estado.”
- 4.
Prandini (2010): “We are witnessing a new beginning in the morphogenetic cycle, an we can see retrospectively that the state monopoly of the political governance in simply a relevant but historical incident of the ongoing process.”
- 5.
Lassalle (1975): “Los factores reales de poder que rigen en el seno de cada sociedad son esa fuerza activa y eficaz que informa todas la leyes e instituciones jurídicas de la sociedad en cuestión, haciendo que no puedan ser, en sustancia, más que tal y como son.”
- 6.
Huntington (2000): “At the top, of course, is the United States as the only super power with unchallenged preeminence in every domain of power: economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological and cultural. It is the only country with truly global interest extending to virtually every part of the World.”
- 7.
Mongardini (2002): “Per sua natura la globalizzazione porta i segni delle economie e quindi delle culture più avanzate nel processo di globalizzazione. Per molti aspetti perciò, come nota Saskia Sasse, la globalizzazione diventa sinonimo di ‘americanizzazione’. La rete globale della comunicazione dà sviluppo ad un processo per cui la cultura globale è improntata alla cultura degli State Uniti, la qual cosa fornisce un ottimo esempio di quella che é situazione di egemonia culturale. Anche organismi internazionali come il FMI o il WTO sono portatori di interessi e di visioni della realtà di impronta americana.”
- 8.
de Cabo and Pissarello (2010).
- 9.
González Encinar (1985).
- 10.
Hamilton et al. (1889): “In a single republic, all the power surrendered by people is submitted to the administrations of a single government into distinct and separate departments. In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the partition allotted to each subdivide among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to rights of people. The different governments will control each other at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”
- 11.
Harmes (2006): “The neoliberal project for multilevel governance can be theorized as a self-conscious attempt to promote a form of “disembedded federalism” where the economy always operates at least one level above that of polity in order to create an exit option (…)”
- 12.
Balibar and Collins (2003): “Thus globalization tends to knock down frontiers with respect to goods and capital while at the same time erecting a whole system of barriers against the influx of a workforce and the ‘right to flight’ that migrants exercise in the face of misery, war, and dictatorial regimes in their countries of origin.”
- 13.
Iglesias Buiges (1976).
- 14.
Declaration of 9 May 1951: “(…) The pooling of coal and steel production should immediately provide for the setting up of common foundations for economic development as a first step in the federation of Europe (…)”.
- 15.
Häberle (2009).
- 16.
Negri (2005): “¿Dónde está la confianza en esa Europa Unida que debería haber tenido la capacidad de desarrollar un nuevo modelo de política económica y social y a la que, en virtud de su máxima potencia, habríamos empujado para presentarse como ejemplo para el resto del mundo? (…) Las reglas de la nueva justicia social y del mantenimiento y fortalecimiento del Estado del bienestar, el deseo de mostrar al mundo un modelo expansivo de desarrollo económico y, al mismo tiempo de fraternidad social…, pues bien, todo esto ha desaparecido del horizonte.”
- 17.
Habermars (1994), “Die Güter-, Kapital und Arbeitsmärkte gehören einer eigener, von den Absichten der Subjekte unabhängigen Logik. Neben der Administrativen Macht, wie sie in den staatlichen Bükratien verkörpert ist, ist das Geld zu einem anonymen, über die Köpfe der Beteiligten hinweg wirksamen Medium der gesellschaftlichen Integration geworden.”
- 18.
Art. 5 EU Treaty: “1. The limits of Union competences are governed by the principle of conferral. The use of Union competences is governed by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. (…) 3. Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.”
- 19.
Galbraith (1979).
- 20.
Venter (2010), op. cit. pp. 21: “This is not utopian, quixotic vision, but is founded upon the moral responsibility of mankind to recognize within itself the need of for a universal legal imperative: the rule of law, justice and democracy should, according to Höffe be acknowledged as a global standard applicable to the future world order, which may be characterized by the notion of a subsidiary (in the sense of the concept of subsidiarity) and a federal World Republic”.
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Camisón, J.A. (2013). Global Federalism: A Solution for the Global Economic Crisis?. In: López Basaguren, A., Escajedo San Epifanio, L. (eds) The Ways of Federalism in Western Countries and the Horizons of Territorial Autonomy in Spain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27720-7_11
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