Federalism – serie

Federalism is spreading around the world as a system of government, yet its origins as a political theory remain obscure. Modern federalism was first developed at the end of the eighteenth century. While Kant identified in federalism the value aspect of universal peace, Alexander Hamilton’s The Federalist Papers identified its main institutional features, commenting on the new federal American Constitution. This collection offers the first systematic comparison of Kant’s and Hamilton’s moral and political thought. The essays highlight the similarities and the differences between these two classics, as well as exploring their reception in different countries. The book focuses on their specific contributions to the development of federalism as a political theory, and touches on the contemporary significance of federalism with regard to issues such as peace, international order, and multinational and multicultural contexts. The combined analysis of Kant’s and Hamilton’s theories of peace, and of their institutional preferences, sheds light on present-day debates around peace and democracy. The book is a valuable contribution for scholars of federalism and of the writings of Kant and Hamilton.

Lord Lothian (Philip Kerr, 1882-1940) was one of the leading exponents of British federalism between the Two World Wars. His federalism was linked to the tradition of Kantian and Hamiltonian thought while simultaneously going beyond this tradition. In the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles, which saw the Old Continent divided into nation-states as holders of absolute sovereignty, he identified the value of peace in the model of the federal State. This was not, as in the case of the Americans, the pragmatic scheme of constitutionalists imposed upon by their historical circumstances, but the general principle of a State organisation geared towards lasting peace in international relations, first in Europe and then worldwide. At the first signs of crisis within the British Empire, Lothian also consistently advocates the political unity of the English-speaking peoples as the nucleus of a world federation able to institutionalise inter-state conflicts and overcome them through legal means.The anthology contained in this essay includes twenty writings and speeches by Lothian and is divided into two sections. The first traces his original political-ideological path: from his long collaboration with the magazine «The Round Table», which has its roots in his initial South African experience within the «Kindergarten», to his speeches held at Chatham House in London in November 1928 and at the Institut für Auswärtige Politik of Hamburg in October 1929; it also covers the years he spent as Private Secretary to the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. The second section focuses on his best-known writings, dating back to the second half of the 1930s – namely Pacifism is not Enough, National Sovereignty and Peace and The Demonic Influence of National Sovereignty – ending with some addresses he delivered as British Ambassador to Washington. In addition there are some significant letters that are part of the extensive correspondence Lothian had with statesmen and federalist intellectuals (Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Lionel Curtis and Anthony Eden), which enrich the entire collection.

Willem A. Visser ’t Hooft (1900–1985), Dutch pastor and theologian, was one of the most significant personalities in the Protestant Ecumenical movement. Deeply influenced by Karl Barth, and filled with a strong Ecumenical spirit, he was closely involved in the founding of the World Council of Churches, of which he was elected General Secretary. During the Second World War, many Protestants became convinced of the need for an international political system which, beside uniting the nations and peoples of Europe, would guarantee them fundamental freedoms and mutual respect for their historical, cultural and confessional traditions. The directors of the WWC were strongly committed to federalism, partly because of the political traditions of the states from which their member churches originated (Switzerland; Great Britain and its Commonwealth; the United States), and partly because of their conviction that a simple confederation of states, based on the model of the League of Nations, would be completely incapable of containing national ambitions. In spring 1944, Visser ’t Hooft welcomed into his Geneva home the representatives of the European Resistance, who, under the leadership of Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, signed the International Federalist Declaration of the Resistance Movements. These historic transnational encounters, aimed not only at coordinating military action or seeking diplomatic contacts but at exploring ways to «build» peace and re-establish the future of the Continent on new foundations, marked a profound break with the past.

This volume analyses the problems and instruments of European citizens’ political participation and focuses in particular on the «European Citizens’ Initiative» (ECI) right. Introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, the ECI enables European citizens to propose legislative measures to the Commission by collecting one million signatures in at least seven EU countries. The European federalists were the first to initiate one of the most important applications of this instrument with their proposal for a «European Special Plan for Sustainable Development», aimed at addressing the ongoing serious economic and social crisis.The essays collected in this volume by authors from different disciplines, backgrounds and nationalities offer reflections on citizenship rights and themes relating to the European crisis, as well as on the necessary steps to revive development in Europe. The informative and functional documentation proposed in the Appendix constitutes a user manual for the potential and concrete application of this new right by European citizens and their various associations.

The book addresses the issue of investment in Europe, adopting a European economic policy approach. In the first part, a review of investment policy in Europe, as well as a macroeconomic theoretical perspective, are provided to better appreciate recent developments within a new investment narrative. By analyzing the context in which investment support policies have taken place at European level since the origins of what is now the EU, through the 2008 financial crisis, and considering the effects of the current pandemic crisis, the book proposes possible solutions based on internal and external investment plans for a new European economic model. In particular, three aspects are examined. First, the implication of the green transition on the social dimension; second, the opportunity to strengthen the partnership with Africa; third, how a large-scale investment plan could be financed.

She was young, a determined fighter against Nazism in Germany; she was an independent socialist, a tireless writer against hatred and war; and she was an extremely courageous woman. All this would be enough to secure Hilda Monte a prominent place in the history of resistance to barbarism in 20th century Europe. Furthermore, she designed a project for a federal Europe that remains unparalleled. Among the many proposals for the future European peace, this one stands out. She edited her project in October 1943 with the renowned London publisher Victor Gollancz.Her plea: for European countries to finally put an end to the "old game of sovereignty". Lasting peace and economic development required a genuine "European revolution": solidarity throughout Europe, common federal structures, based on a shared history and the common values of humanism. She was aware that this path would be a difficult one. Hilda Monte was born in Vienna in 1914, grew up in Berlin and wrote her first newspaper articles against the rise of Hitler when she was 17. In 1933 she witnessed the "seizure of power" in Berlin. Exile in Paris and London followed. But Hilda Monte wanted to do more than just write against Nazism, and so she undertook dangerous trips to Germany. On 17 April 1945, while returning from a mission "on the ground" for the Austrian resistance, which she considered an act of European solidarity, she was shot and killed on the border near Feldkirch. Her treatise "The Unity of Europe", newly published here, is the lasting legacy of an eminent European resistance fighter.

2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference, where the foundations of a new international economic and monetary order were laid down. After the end of the fixed exchange-rates regime between 1971 and 1973, the US dollar hegemony was strengthened while the international system was dominated by increasing global imbalances and greater vulnerability of the world economy.This was mainly due to the built-in destabilizer that characterizes each international monetary system relying on a national currency to provide global liquidity: the essence of the Triffin dilemma.Since the Great Financial Crisis an attempt was made towards a more equitable, multilateral economic governance system. But the last few years have also brought more fragmentation, shortening of global value chains and attempts to fence off negative transnational externalities deriving from various sources of interdependence (even with autarchic and neocolonial responses). Worse yet the pandemic and military conflicts reinforced the logic of blocks while the need for increased supranational public goods or reduced negative public bads is becoming pressing.This book suggests that a way to recover a path towards multilateralism is strengthened regional integration. This may help return on a path of trans-national confidence and cooperation and implement a new multilayered architecture of the international monetary system. "This book is an indispensable reading at a time when one of the essential tasks of the international community is to move towards a new monetary order and a reform of the International monetary fund (IMF) associating the new regional monetary unions to the management of a common currency: the Special Drawing Right (SDR)."Michel Camdessus, Former Managing Director, IMF; Honorary Governor, Bank of France