FEDERALIST IDEA. - Under the name of federalist idea, or more properly of federalism (from Latin foedus, alliance), are comprised the doctrine and the political movements aimed at promoting the grouping of smaller state units within larger organisms, achieving such a grouping through the renunciation by the federated units of some of their sovereign powers, with the aim of common defense and the progressive elimination of international disputes.
In its present state federalism finds itself divided into different currents, each of which offers a, up to a certain point, different formulation of the end to be achieved and of the means to be employed. There is no doubt that federalism is fundamentally directed toward the unitary organization of smaller political groupings: but this purpose is understood by some predominantly as a means of defense of the group, so as to bring about, only indirectly it is understood, the elimination of international disputes; by others, on the other hand, the purpose of federalism is indicated as the achievement of a single general international grouping such as to realize the pacifist ideal. In addition to this diversity of initial positions, federalism also finds itself divided over the means most suited to the realization of federal unity, and, in particular, over the sum of powers to be attributed to the central organs of the federal institution, and, respectively, over the more or less serious renunciation of sovereign powers on the part of the federated States: thus federalism has so far historically taken shape in two typical forms (the confederation of States and the federal State) differentiated precisely by the more or less ample sphere of sovereign attributions left to the federated States.
Federalism has obtained numerous practical affirmations; it has been realized in its different forms, in the union of the Swiss cantons, in the organization of the American, Australian and South African territories that were emancipating themselves from European colonization, in the constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Federalism had been looked to by authoritative political men who set themselves the problem of the independent arrangement of the German and Italian States in the last century (v. RISORGIMENTO): federalist was precisely, in Italy, Gioberti (v.). In the most recent epoch and especially after the Second World War, federalist doctrine has been translated into a vigorous political movement that concerns the States of Western Europe: it is on this difficult terrain that federalism is now making its trial; and it is not to be excluded that the very variety of motives and of solutions by which the currents flowing into it are inspired may contribute to indicating the solution most suited for the grouping of political units in certain respects as different as those of Western Europe.