CIAO DATE: 03/2009
February 2008
Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
Writing in the late 18th century Edmund Burke characterized the British East India Company as "a state disguised as a merchant."1 What, in these terms, is the United States? Is it an empire disguised as a republic disguised as a democracy? What is Canada? Is it an international system disguised as a confederation disguised as a federation?2 What, finally, is the European Union? It is somewhat ambiguous. But I shall argue that it is an international organization thinly disguised as a political community.
Resource link: Solidarism or Pluralism? Political Ideas of the American Union and the European Union [PDF] - 318K