Confederation (from the Latin confoederatio - union, union) is one of the rarest forms of government. Strictly speaking, a confederation, in its essence, is not even a full-fledged state, since it unites in itself several completely sovereign independent states. In addition, historical experience shows that the confederal structure is not only one of the rarest, but also one of the most unstable state formations.
All currently known confederal unions either disintegrated after a short existence, or transformed into full-fledged federal states. Such political instability is explained primarily by the peculiarities of the confederal union itself, which simultaneously has the characteristics of both a single state and an international legal union of sovereign states. Regardless of the historical and cultural characteristics of development, all confederations have the following universal characteristics: 1. Confederate unions are created to achieve a certain common goal (economic, political or military cooperation, trade development, etc.); 2. The subjects of the confederation have the right to unilaterally terminate the confederate treaty and free exit; 3. Sovereignty in the confederation belongs to its subjects. Not a single decision of the confederal authorities has legal force without ratification (approval) by its member states; 4. Only a limited range of issues is under the jurisdiction of the confederal authorities. Usually these are the problems of war and peace, the creation of a system of common communication, the formation of a unified army and foreign policy; 5. The system of organs of confederal power is limited in comparison with the systems of sovereign states. In particular, only those authorities and institutions are created in it, which are necessary for solving specific problems. As a rule, there are no judicial authorities; 6. The budget of the confederation can be created only at the expense of voluntary contributions from the member states of the union. The confederation does not have a system of compulsory collection of taxes and fees; 7. The confederal parliament is formed by the representative bodies of the subjects of the confederation, and all delegates in it follow the instructions given to them by sovereign states; 8. Most confederal unions lack uniform citizenship, and there are currently no full-fledged confederal unions in the world. Even Switzerland, which officially bears the name of the Swiss Confederation, is essentially a federal state. The European Union is the closest to a confederation in its structure, but it is not formally recognized as such.