This form of government may be created through voluntary and mutual cession and is described as unionism[a] by its constituent members and proponents.
In a federalised system, the constituent entities usually have internal autonomy, for example in the setup of police departments, and share power with the federal government, for whom external sovereignty, military forces, and foreign affairs are usually reserved.
The Scottish, despite economic troubles during the Seven Ill Years preceding the union, still had remaining negotiating power.
[9] The informal recognition of such interests represents the different circumstances of the two Unions, the small base of institutional power in Ireland at the time (those who were the beneficiaries of the Protestant Ascendancy) had faced a revolution in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and as a result there was an institutional drive toward unification, limiting the Irish negotiating power.
[10] However, informal guarantees were given to preclude the possibility of further Irish unrest in the period following the French Revolution of 1789 and the 1798 rebellion.
Lord Durham was widely regarded as one of the most important thinkers in the history of the British Empire's constitutional evolution.
To meet this requirement, we need to have a balance of power between the two or more states, which can create an equal monetary, economic, social and cultural environment.
The task of triggering a political crisis and to get the attention of the citizens toward the unification's necessity is in the hands of the elites.
According to a 1975 study by University of Rochester political scientist William Riker, unions were motivated by security threats.
[25] According to Ryan Griffiths, all instances of mutually wilful unification from 1816 onwards were between states that spoke the same languages.