FEDERALIST IDEA. — Under the name of federalist idea, or more properly federalism (from the Latin foedus, alliance), are understood the doctrine and political movements aimed at promoting the grouping of smaller state units into larger bodies, achieving this 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.
At the present time, federalism is divided into different currents, each of which offers, up to a certain point, a different formulation of the goal to be achieved and the means to be employed. There is no doubt that federalism is fundamentally directed toward the unitary organization of smaller political groupings; but this goal is understood by some primarily as a defensive means for the group, thus achieving, albeit indirectly, the elimination of international disputes; by others, however, the goal of federalism is seen as the attainment of a single general international grouping capable of realizing the pacifist ideal. In addition to this diversity of starting positions, federalism is also divided over the most suitable means for achieving federal unity, and in particular over the extent of powers to be granted to the central organs of the federal institution, and, respectively, over the more or less serious renunciation of sovereign powers by the federated states: thus federalism has historically taken on two typical forms (the confederation of states and the federal state), differentiated precisely by the more or less broad sphere of sovereign powers left to the federated states.
Federalism has achieved numerous practical affirmations; it has been realized in its various forms in the union of Swiss cantons, in the organization of the American, Australian, and South African territories emancipating themselves from European colonization, and in the constitution of the Socialist Soviet Republics. Federalism had been looked to by authoritative political figures who addressed the problem of the independent arrangement of German and Italian states in the last century (v. RISORGIMENTO ITALIANO): in Italy, Gioberti (v.) was indeed a federalist. In more recent times, and especially after the Second World War, the federalist doctrine has been translated into a vigorous political movement affecting the states of Western Europe: it is on this difficult terrain that federalism is now making its trial; and it cannot be ruled out that the very variety of motives and solutions inspiring the currents converging upon it may contribute to indicating the most suitable solution for the grouping of political units as diverse as those of Western Europe.