The proverbial expression, or
retort, that the U.S. is not a France with a large back yard (i.e.,
simply more territory), or the equivalent—to say that the E.U. is not Texas
with a large front yard—is oriented to the important difference between (early)
modern empire-scale unions and states (i.e., polities) thereof. An empire is
constituted by many (i.e., not just a few) polities that are culturally
heterogenous (i.e., different from one another). Even though since at least
1871, Canada’s provinces have stretched across a continent, the number of
provinces (10) does not meet the number qualification to be considered an empire
even though Quebec and British Columbia are obviously very different culturally
(including linguistically). In contrast, at 27 and 50 members, the E.U. and
U.S. respectively qualify on both counts—interstate cultural/political diversity
and the number of states. Even though the E.U.’s linguistic interstate
diversity has greatly exceeded that which existed even in 2026 among the U.S.
members, U.S. has its own dimensions of cultural difference that are palpable
and salient between member-states, and particular pairs of states can even be
said to be divergent on specific dimensions. It may even be that the E.U.
states are more homogenous than are the U.S. states on such dimensions. For
example, attitudes towards people having guns—including semi-automatic machine
guns, so not just guns for hunting—differ between American states substantially
and more so than between E.U. states.
The full essay is at "American Federalism."
