Federalism helps the poor

ARTICLE: The rich usually want it, but it's the poor who need devolution, By CHARLES ONYANGO- OBBO, The East African, January 7, 2008

This is a profound argument from the poor for federalism and the end of more unitary states.

To me, this is Africa recognizing it needs to remap itself preemptively, much like Iraq is forced/enticed to do the same: better to devolve to more suitably small packages that allow more flexible, bottom-up-derived answers to the challenges/opportunities posed by globalization's progressive advance.

(Thanks: Michael Griffin)

Comments

[Michael]

*melodramatic sigh* No commentary, huh? That shatters my ego boost. . .:P

[Hal O'Brien]

This is yet another reaffirmation of one of the theses of the Austrian economist the libertarians love to ignore, Leopold Kohr. (Principal work: The Breakdown of Nations, 1957) That is, that successful confederations like the USA or Switzerland only work when each constituent part cannot pose a credible threat to the others. Africa, on the other hand, will always generate conflict between Nigeria, Kenya, Congo, and South Africa. Much as Europe always devolved to conflict between the UK, France, and Germany, until the superpowers made all the European states, including "Great Powers," equally small.

At the end of Breakdown, Kohr includes a map of what it would take to create a united Europe. It's proven remarkably prophetic, especially for having been drawn in the middle of the Cold War.