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> The USA is actually not a federation, and purposefully stopped being one (it turned in a confederation You have it backwards. The USA was a Confederation (a

> The USA is actually not a federation, and purposefully stopped being one (it turned in a confederation You have it backwards. The USA was a Confederation (a weak alliance of almost entirely independent nations) under the Articles of Confederation, 1776-1789 Then in 1789 it became a Federation (a strong national union of autonomous but not independent states) with the new Constitution. In a confederation, the central government has negligible power and states can come and go as they please. The EU is arguably a confederation, and it's pretty much the only modern example, because confederations rarely last long. Historical confederations include the CSA and Holy Roman Empire. That is not the model that the Fediverse wants to uphold (otherwise it would be called the confediverse). Mastodon is intended to be structured as a Federation, like the United States, Germany, or Malaysia, with a strong but limited central power that maintains unity among the federated members, while mostly letting them do their own thing.

wdewind 8y ago
Sorry yeah, I reversed the terms, in response to this: > The term "federation" is borrowed from political science for a reason. Just like in the USA, multiple federated states who share broad-strokes policies maintain interoperability while also maintaining their own sovreignty. which is not true, under a federation the members do not maintain sovereignty, and this is the important point. The Colonial States gave up their sovereignty when they became federated. Everything else, besides the terms reversal (my bad), it seems we agree on? > The EU is arguably a confederation, and it's pretty much the only modern example, because confederations rarely last long. Exactly! > That is not the model that the Fediverse wants to uphold So what are we even arguing about here? We agree decentralization wont last long. If you're using the US as an example of a desirable "light hand" federation I guess that's just where we agree to disagree.

wdewind 8y ago

Sorry yeah, I reversed the terms, in response to this: > The term "federation" is borrowed from political science for a reason. Just like in the USA, multiple federated states who share broad-strokes policies maintain interoperability while also maintaining their own sovreignty. which is not true, under a federation the members do not maintain sovereignty, and this is the important point. The Colonial States gave up their sovereignty when they became federated. Everything else, besides the terms reversal (my bad), it seems we agree on? > The EU is arguably a confederation, and it's pretty much the only modern example, because confederations rarely last long. Exactly! > That is not the model that the Fediverse wants to uphold So what are we even arguing about here? We agree decentralization wont last long. If you're using the US as an example of a desirable "light hand" federation I guess that's just where we agree to disagree.