Any federal system of government must function fundamentally as a
unit even though the states are semi-sovereign, as is the federal level. The
Nullification Crisis in the U.S. during the nineteenth century highlighted the
plight a federal union would face were state governments able to ignore federal
law unilaterally. Fortunately, President Jackson was able to get South Carolina
to stand down on this point. In 2024, the E.U.'s federal officials were having
trouble getting the state of Hungary not only to apply a federal directive
within the state, but also to stop contradicting the E.U.'s foreign policy
against Putin's Russia in Ukraine by engaging in diplomatic trips of
appeasement. A federal system that lacks the means procedurally or
substantively to protect federal prerogatives against the contradictory actions
of even one wayward state is not viable in the long term.
The full essay is at "The E.U. on Hungary."
