Madison and Hamilton continue their collaborative history of confederations in Federalist No. 19 by turning to recent and contemporaneous examples, chiefly the German empire, a “nerveless body” plagued by internal wars and “foreign intrusions.” So, “what has so long kept this disjointed machine from falling entirely to pieces? The answer is obvious,” says Publius, namely the weakness of the various parts (coupled with the emperor’s self-interest and “family pride”), which “support[s] a feeble and precarious union.”

Again I think of the European Union. What reason has it for existing other than the weakness of the once-great continental powers? What reason do the British have for resisting the euro and (occasionally) balking at their political leaders’ efforts to enmesh them further in the EU’s tentacles? It is that Britain has declined from its former glory least precipitously, and remains a power to be reckoned with, economically and militarily. But on the whole, today’s EU, like Germany before Bismarck, may deserve to be called “a feeble and precarious union.” It is both too much pan-European government and not enough.

(For explanation of this recurring feature, see here.)