Superstate

A superstate is defined as "a large and powerful state formed when several smaller countries unite"[1] or "A large and powerful state formed from a federation or union of nations".[2] This is distinct from the concept of superpower, although these are sometimes seen together. It is also distinct from the concept of empire, where one nation dominates other nations through military, political, and economic power.

This article is about the political concept. For the quantum mechanics principle, see Quantum superposition.

Use

In the early 20th century, "superstate" had a similar definition as today's supranational organisations. In a 1927 article by Edward A. Harriman on the League of Nations, a superstate was defined as merely "an organisation, of which a state is a member, which is superior to the member themselves", in that "[a] complete superstate has legislative, executive and judicial organs to make, to execute and to interpret its laws". According to this definition, Harriman saw the League of Nations as a "rudimentary superstate", and the United States as "an example of a complete and perfect superstate".[3]

In World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, first published in 1938, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, described the anticipated world government of that religion as the "world’s future super-state" with the Bahá'í Faith as the "State Religion of an independent and Sovereign Power."[4]

In the 1970s, academic literature used the term "superstate" to indicate a particularly rich and powerful state, in a similar fashion to the term superpower.[5]

In contemporary political debate, especially the one centred on the European Union, the term "superstate" is used to indicate a development in which the Union develops from its current de facto status[6] as a confederation to become a fully-fledged federation. For instance, Glyn Morgan contrasts the perspective of a "European superstate" to the ones of "a Europe of nation-states" and of "a post-sovereign European polity".[7]:202 In her definition, a "European superstate is nothing more than a sovereign state - a tried and tested type of polity that predominates in the modern world - operating on a European wide scale",[7]:204 i.e., "a unitary European state".[7]:ix Especially after the European debt crisis, economic literature started to discuss the role of European union as a European superstate. In particular, [8] compared the emergence of a debt union to the federal structure of Germany.

The term was famously used by Margaret Thatcher in her 1988 Bruges speech, when she decried the perspective of "a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels",[9] and has since entered the eurosceptic lexicon. Tony Blair argued in 2000 that he welcomed an EU as a "superpower, not a superstate".[10]

Fictional superstates
gollark: ! is the uninhabited type.
gollark: How does that follow?
gollark: Besides, ! has undefined information, as it can be converted to ALL types.
gollark: I don't think your theory is very useful.
gollark: Wow, these things are so helpful.

See also

Notes
  1. "Superstate", Cambridge dictionaries online
  2. "superstate - Definition of superstate in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries - English.
  3. Edward A. Harriman, The League of Nations a Rudimentary Superstate, American Political Science Review / Volume 21 / Issue 01 / February 1927, pp 137-140
  4. Effendi, Shoghi (1938). "Local and National Houses of Justice". The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-87743-231-9.
  5. V. K. WICKRAMASINGHE, JAPAN — THE EMERGING SUPERSTATE ? Some Thoughts on Herman Kahn. The Developing Economies, Volume 11, Issue 2, pages 196–210, June 1973
  6. Kiljunen, Kimmo (2004). The European Constitution in the Making. Centre for European Policy Studies. pp. 21–26. ISBN 978-92-9079-493-6.
  7. Glyn Morgan, The Idea of a European Superstate: Public Justification and European Integration Princeton University Press, 2009, ISBN 9781400828050
  8. Erkut, Burak (24 December 2015). "A Super Indebted European Superstate". Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research. 10: 4–10 – via ResearchGate.
  9. Margaret Thatcher, Speech to the College of Europe ("The Bruges Speech"), 20 September 1988
  10. Stephen Haseler, Super-State: The New Europe and Its Challenge to America, p. 85
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