[todd-davies]

Great example. Another one is state governments joining a union or federal system, such as US states joining the Union or European states joining the EU, and becoming bound by federal/EU law.

[Xeoncross]

That's an interesting way to look at it; governments merging into even larger entities is them giving up power?

The "government" isn't a unified mind. It's a group of individuals looking to further their career and (rarely) pursue a cause they care about. If two governments merge their law-sets into one, they aren't losing anything - the people involved are simply being promoted and gaining a broader peer influence with more vertical growth opportunities.

[Am4TIfIsER0ppos]

What? Joining the EU absolutely increases government power. It lets the government do things by saying "europe makes us".

[soco]

Or lets the local government or whatever party say "ohhh how wouldn't we have increased your well-being if not for them darn Europeans so just elect us one more time then we'll show them for good". And this line works so well, regardless if the respective party did or tried anything on the European level or not. It's the cultivated helplessness in some circles, that EU was some remote and abstract place where "things" happen and no one, not even your own representatives there, can move an inch. Same whether you're German or Luxembourgeois, it's the ideal material for promoting your own party and keeping the voters dumbed down.

[logicchains]

>such as US states joining the Union

This doesn't really count as freely joining, since half of them were forced to join by a bloody war.

[KMag]

> This doesn't really count as freely joining, since half of them were forced to join by a bloody war.

In the South, do they generally consider themselves as forced to re-join the Union, rather than having been forcefully prevented from leaving?

[soco]

Let's not forget that other half joined freely a different union. So the argument doesn't change at all.