What Is A Confederate In Psychology?
Sabrina Sarro
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Experimentation using a Confederate | Experimental Psychology | JoVE Trial ends in Source: Laboratories of, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University When orchestrating an experiment, it is important that the experience elicits the most natural reactions from the participants as possible.
Researchers accomplish much of this through their creation of the experimental settings. Many research projects focus on interactions between two or more people. In these situations the environment or setting must often be less natural; often only one person can be a true participant and others in the study need to be “confederates,” that is, allegedly unbiased participants whom, in actuality, act according to the researcher’s directions.
This video uses a two-group experiment to see if participants are more likely to imitate a person with more power versus similar power compared to the participant. The video also highlights the use of research confederates. Psychological studies often use higher sample sizes than studies in other sciences.
A large number of participants helps to better ensure that the population under study is better represented, i.e. the margin of error accompanied by studying human behavior is sufficiently accounted for. Further, human participants for research like this are often readily available and the experiment is quick and inexpensive to replicate so we want to use as many participants as possible.
In this video we demonstrate this experiment using just one participant. However, as represented in the results, we used a total of 156 participants to reach the experiment’s conclusions.1. Define key variables.
- Create an operational definition ( i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of power.
- For the purposes of this experiment, power is measured by relative authority on the college campus, e.g., a residence hall assistant has more power than a student that does not hold this position.
- Create an operational definition ( i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of imitation.
For purposes of this experiment, imitation is defined as the participant’s non-conscious mimicking of the confederate by making similar movements with their feet and hands.
2. Conduct the study.
- Meet the student/participant at the lab.
- Provide participant with informed consent, a brief description of the research, a sense of the procedure, an indication of potential risks/benefits, the right of withdrawal at any time, and a manner to get help if they experience discomfort.
- Have the participant sit at a desk on the window side of a one-way mirror.
- Tell the participant that you would like them to remember the behaviors of another participant (a confederate in actuality) who will sit on the mirror side of the one-way mirror while they work on GRE Math problems ( Figure 1 ).1
Figure 1: An example of the GRE math problems given to the confederate.
- Train the confederate.
- Confederates, also known as stooges, are part of the experiment and act exactly as the researcher instructs. Participants are led to believe that a confederate is a participant.
- Train the confederate to engage in 7 key behaviors: playing with their hair, putting a pen in their mouth, tapping their fingers, touching their face, wrinkling their nose, making whistling sounds, and leaning back in their chair.
- For consistency, the confederate should match each behavior to a specific question on the GRE math problems. For example, when the confederate works on problem 1, they should play with hair, when they work on question 2, they should put a pen in their mouth, for question 3, they should tap their fingers, etc, This will ensure that all behaviors occur at the same relative time for all participants.
- Lead the confederate to their chair in front of the mirror-side of the one-way mirror.
- Treat the confederate like a participant, giving them informed consent (as described in 2.2 above), and then explain that the participant will complete the sheet of GRE math problems.
On the window side of the one-way mirror, the participant has clear sight and sound of this interaction between the researcher and the confederate.
- Return to the participant with a pen and a copy of the GRE problems. Instruct the participant to mark ones they think the confederate got correct with a star, and those they think the confederate got incorrect with an X.
- In one condition, tell the participant that the confederate is a head residence hall assistant on campus.
- In the other condition tell the participant that the confederate is another participant “just like you.”
- Sit off to the side of the participant and record the participant’s behaviors on a chart ( Figure 2 ). Figure 2: Chart used by experimenter to record participant’s behavior.
3. Debrief the participant.
- Tell the participant the nature of the study.
- “Thank you for participating. In this study I was trying to determine if a fellow participant’s perceived power or authority would increase the chances that a participant like you would mimic their behavior. There were two groups in the study, one group was told the person they were observing is a residence hall assistant, while the other group was told they were just another participant. We hypothesized that those who observed the resident hall assistant would be more likely to mimic their behavior because they are an authority figure.”
- Explain explicitly why deception was necessary for the experiment.
“We want to tell you about the deception we used in this study. We used deception by telling you the person you observed was another participant, but in reality they were a part of the study and served as a confederate. We did this to make the experiment feel real and to ensure that person being observed acting similarly for each participant in the study. If participants were to know the true reasoning and hypothesis behind the study, they may perform in an unnatural way by trying to live up to the experimenter’s perceived expectations. To eliminate this problem, it was necessary for us to use the confederate. Because of the nature of the deception, it is quite natural for participants to not realize that they were being deceived.”
- Confederates, or research actors, are commonly employed in psychology experiments to secretly participate along with actual subjects.
- By using confederates, researchers study participants in complex social settings and reliably capture naïve reactions.
- Through the incorporation of confederates, this video demonstrates how to design, perform, analyze, and interpret an experiment where non-conscious mimicry is reliably measured.
- In this case, researchers manipulate the experimental setting to test whether a participant is more likely to mimic a person with greater social power versus a person with similar power.
This experiment uses a two-group design with a critical element: a hired actor or confederate. The confederate acts according to the researcher’s directions, which allows for secret observations. Subjects think that they are observing other participants’ behaviors as they work on math problems through a one-way mirror.
In actuality, the researcher is interested in whether or not the subjects subsequently mimic behaviors acted out by the confederate as he works on each math problem. Half of the student participants are told that the confederate is in a more powerful position as a head residence hall assistant, whereas the other half are told that the confederate is equal in power as a regular student.
The participants are then asked to score the questions that they think the confederate got right or wrong. At the same time participants are scoring each problem, the researcher observes them and tallies the dependent variable—the number of behaviors mimicked.
- If the perceived status of the confederate influences the participants’ responses, those who believe the confederate had higher power will mimic a greater number of behaviors than those who believe the confederate has equal power.
- To conduct the experiment, you will need: informed consent and final debriefing papers, pens, a sheet of GRE-level math problems, a one-way mirror for observation, and a chart of behaviors to tally.
To begin the experiment, meet the participant in the lab. Guide all participants through the consent process and discuss the overall plan for the session. Lead the participant into the window side of the room with a one-way mirror. State that they will be viewing another participant on the mirrored side as they complete GRE-level math problems.
- Convey to the participant that they need to carefully remember behaviors performed by the other participant.
- While the participant is waiting in the room for someone to appear on the other side, meet the confederate actor.
- Instruct them to respectively engage in the following seven key behaviors in order with seven math problems: playing with their hair, putting a pen in their mouth, tapping their fingers on the desk, touching their face, wrinkling their nose, whistling, and leaning back in the chair.
Now lead the confederate to the chair in front of the mirror-side of the one-way mirror. Provide them with the same informed consent papers and research guidelines so that the participant believes the confederate is indeed another normal participant. Before leaving the room, hand a sheet of math problems to the confederate to complete.
- After handing the confederate the sheet of GRE math problems, return to the original participant with a pen and a copy of the math problems.
- Tell them that the other observed participant is either: (1) a head residence hall assistant on campus, or (2) another normal student participant.
- After the confederate leaves the room, instruct the participant to mark questions they think the confederate got correct with a star or incorrect with an X.
Simultaneously check whether or not the participant imitates the confederate’s behavior when scoring each question. At the conclusion of the experiment, debrief participants and explain why deception was necessary for the experiment. To analyze how confederates influence the outcome, tally the number of behaviors mimicked for each condition.
The data are then graphed by plotting the mean number of behaviors mimicked in each condition. In this experiment, participants who believed the confederate was a Resident Hall Assistant imitated a greater number of behaviors than those who believed the confederate was a student. Now that you are familiar with how psychology experiments are cleverly implemented with confederates, let’s take a look at how various researchers employ confederates to affect social behaviors.
In a recent study, confederates were used to examine social influences on remembering. A confederate gave participants misinformation that led to incorrect memories being recalled. Thus, the use of confederates shows that memory recall is socially contagious.
- In another experiment, confederates were used to examine social cues of attraction.
- When a male confederate interacted with a female confederate’s baby, women who witnessed the interaction liked him better than when he ignored the baby.
- Neuroscientists are interested in how our brains process mimicking the actions of others.
Discovering the neurophysiological correlates is critical for understanding perception and mechanisms underlying social cognitive disorders. You’ve just watched JoVE’s introduction to using confederates in experimental studies. Now you should have a good understanding of how to design and perform the experiment, as well as analyze results and apply the phenomenon.
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- The procedure demonstrated in this research was repeated 155 times so that the results reflect data from 156 total participants.78 of the participants were told that the confederate was a head residence hall assistant (first condition) while the other 78 participants were told that the confederate has no such position of power, i.e.
, was just a regular student like the participant (second condition). The data graphed reflect the average number of behaviors the participant mimicked while observing the confederate ( Figure 3 ). Recall that there were 7 possible behaviors to mimic so participants’ scores could range between 0 and 7. Figure 3: Average number of behaviors mimicked by perceived power condition. Subscription Required. Please recommend JoVE to your librarian. Confederates are common in psychology research. For example, a confederate can give participants specific suggestions or information that can later influence memory.2 Researchers also use confederates in field studies to recreate everyday interactions.
For example, when a male confederate interacted with a baby, women liked him better than when he ignored the baby.3 This study replicates and extends previous research on embodiment, which showed that those who want to feel affiliated to another person are more likely to engage in nonconscious mimicry.4 A number of factors may influence the extent to which a person non-consciously mimics another.
For example, a recent experiment induced participants to feel a sense of prideful, positive, or neutral feelings.5 The results indicated that participants who felt a sense of pride were less likely to mimic a confederate’s foot shaking behavior. Subscription Required.
- Seltzer, N., & The Staff of the Princeton Review.1,014 GRE practice questions. (L. Braswell, R. Lessem, S. Coppock, & H. Brady, Eds.). New York, NY: Random House (2009).
- Davis, S.D., & Meade, M.L. Both young and older adults discount suggestions from older adults on a social memory test. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.20 (4), 760-765. doi:10.3758/s13423-013-0392-5 (2013).
- Guéguen, N. Cues of men’s parental investment and attractiveness for women: A field experiment. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.24 (3), 296-300. doi:10.1080/10911359.2013.820160 (2014).
- Lakin, J.L., & Chartrand, T.L. Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological Science.14 (4), 334-339 doi:10.1111/1467-9280.14481 (2003).
- Dickens, L., & DeSteno, D. Pride attenuates nonconscious mimicry. Emotion.14 (1), 7-11. doi:10.1037/a0035291 (2014).
- Confederates, or research actors, are commonly employed in psychology experiments to secretly participate along with actual subjects.
- By using confederates, researchers study participants in complex social settings and reliably capture naïve reactions.
- Through the incorporation of confederates, this video demonstrates how to design, perform, analyze, and interpret an experiment where non-conscious mimicry is reliably measured.
- In this case, researchers manipulate the experimental setting to test whether a participant is more likely to mimic a person with greater social power versus a person with similar power.
This experiment uses a two-group design with a critical element: a hired actor or confederate. The confederate acts according to the researcher’s directions, which allows for secret observations. Subjects think that they are observing other participants’ behaviors as they work on math problems through a one-way mirror.
- In actuality, the researcher is interested in whether or not the subjects subsequently mimic behaviors acted out by the confederate as he works on each math problem.
- Half of the student participants are told that the confederate is in a more powerful position as a head residence hall assistant, whereas the other half are told that the confederate is equal in power as a regular student.
The participants are then asked to score the questions that they think the confederate got right or wrong. At the same time participants are scoring each problem, the researcher observes them and tallies the dependent variable—the number of behaviors mimicked.
If the perceived status of the confederate influences the participants’ responses, those who believe the confederate had higher power will mimic a greater number of behaviors than those who believe the confederate has equal power. To conduct the experiment, you will need: informed consent and final debriefing papers, pens, a sheet of GRE-level math problems, a one-way mirror for observation, and a chart of behaviors to tally.
To begin the experiment, meet the participant in the lab. Guide all participants through the consent process and discuss the overall plan for the session. Lead the participant into the window side of the room with a one-way mirror. State that they will be viewing another participant on the mirrored side as they complete GRE-level math problems.
Convey to the participant that they need to carefully remember behaviors performed by the other participant. While the participant is waiting in the room for someone to appear on the other side, meet the confederate actor. Instruct them to respectively engage in the following seven key behaviors in order with seven math problems: playing with their hair, putting a pen in their mouth, tapping their fingers on the desk, touching their face, wrinkling their nose, whistling, and leaning back in the chair.
Now lead the confederate to the chair in front of the mirror-side of the one-way mirror. Provide them with the same informed consent papers and research guidelines so that the participant believes the confederate is indeed another normal participant. Before leaving the room, hand a sheet of math problems to the confederate to complete.
- After handing the confederate the sheet of GRE math problems, return to the original participant with a pen and a copy of the math problems.
- Tell them that the other observed participant is either: (1) a head residence hall assistant on campus, or (2) another normal student participant.
- After the confederate leaves the room, instruct the participant to mark questions they think the confederate got correct with a star or incorrect with an X.
Simultaneously check whether or not the participant imitates the confederate’s behavior when scoring each question. At the conclusion of the experiment, debrief participants and explain why deception was necessary for the experiment. To analyze how confederates influence the outcome, tally the number of behaviors mimicked for each condition.
- The data are then graphed by plotting the mean number of behaviors mimicked in each condition.
- In this experiment, participants who believed the confederate was a Resident Hall Assistant imitated a greater number of behaviors than those who believed the confederate was a student.
- Now that you are familiar with how psychology experiments are cleverly implemented with confederates, let’s take a look at how various researchers employ confederates to affect social behaviors.
In a recent study, confederates were used to examine social influences on remembering. A confederate gave participants misinformation that led to incorrect memories being recalled. Thus, the use of confederates shows that memory recall is socially contagious.
In another experiment, confederates were used to examine social cues of attraction. When a male confederate interacted with a female confederate’s baby, women who witnessed the interaction liked him better than when he ignored the baby. Neuroscientists are interested in how our brains process mimicking the actions of others.
Discovering the neurophysiological correlates is critical for understanding perception and mechanisms underlying social cognitive disorders. You’ve just watched JoVE’s introduction to using confederates in experimental studies. Now you should have a good understanding of how to design and perform the experiment, as well as analyze results and apply the phenomenon.
Contents
What is the difference between confederate and participant?
In a research experiment confederates are individuals who seem to be participants but in reality are part of the research team. They essentially trick real participants into thinking they are fellow participants. Asch used confederates in an integral way for his research on majority influence,
What is a confederate quizlet psychology?
In psychological and social research, a confederate is a person who is working with the experimenter and posing as a part of the experiment, but the subjects are not aware of this affiliation.
Who is referred to as a confederate?
Other forms: confederates; confederated; confederating A confederate is an ally — someone who’s on your side. Your brother, the artist, might be your only confederate in your goal of studying modern dance in Paris this summer. A confederate is anyone who supports you and works toward the same goal with you.
When it is used in the context of government or politics, it means “united by a treaty,” like two countries that have joined forces against a third. When the first letter is capitalized, Confederate refers to the southern United States during the Civil War, which were confederates in their fight to secede from the rest of the country.
Definitions of confederate
adjective united in a confederacy or league synonyms: allied, confederative united characterized by unity; being or joined into a single entity noun a person who joins with another in carrying out some plan (especially an unethical or illegal plan) synonyms: accomplice see more see less types: decoy, steerer a beguiler who leads someone into danger (usually as part of a plot) roper a decoy who lures customers into a gambling establishment (especially one with a fixed game) shill a decoy who acts as an enthusiastic customer in order to stimulate the participation of others type of: assistant, help, helper, supporter a person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose noun someone who assists in a plot
Definitions of confederate
verb form a group or unite verb form a confederation with; of nations
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘confederate’, Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback EDITOR’S CHOICE
What is a confederate in social studies?
Other forms: confederacies A confederacy is a political union. The most famous American confederacy consisted of the southern states who fought the northern states in the American Civil War. When you confederate — that is, join together for a common purpose — what you get is a confederacy.
- Americans will never forget a well-known but ill-fated confederacy, the Confederate States of America: an unrecognized state that formed in 1861, uniting the slave states that left the United States at the time of the Civil War.
- Any such political union could be called a confederacy (or a federation).
When you see the word confederacy, think of togetherness in the political realm. Definitions of confederacy
noun a union of political organizations synonyms: confederation, federation see more see less types: show 4 types. hide 4 types. nation a federation of tribes (especially Native American tribes) Creek Confederacy a North American Indian confederacy organized by the Muskogee that dominated the southeastern part of the United States before being removed to Oklahoma Hanseatic League a commercial and defensive confederation of free cities in northern Germany and surrounding areas; formed in 1241 and most influential in the 14th century when it included over 100 towns and functioned as an independent political power; the last official assembly was held in 1669 federation of tribes, tribe a federation (as of American Indians) type of: union a political unit formed from previously independent people or organizations noun a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose noun a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘confederacy’, Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback EDITOR’S CHOICE
What is an example of Confederate?
Federal System Power is shared by a powerful central government and states or provinces that are given considerable self-rule, usually through their own legislatures. Examples: The United States, Australia, the Federal Republic of Germany. | Unitary System One central government controls weaker states. Power is not shared between states, counties, or provinces. Examples: China, United Kingdom (although Scotland has been granted self-rule). | Confederal System Weak or loose organization of states agrees to follow a powerful central government. Nations can choose to follow or not follow the lead of the weak central government. Examples: The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), formerly known as the Soviet Union. Also, Switzerland’s canton system and the Confederate States of America (1861-1865). |
Why are they called Confederate?
The Confederation of the United States – Confederate Flag by William Porcher Miles >> In February of 1861 many of the states in the southern part of the United States decided to form their own country. They called it the Confederate States of America. However, the northern states did not agree that these states had the right to leave. This started the Civil War. South Carolina Secedes The first state to leave the United States was South Carolina on December 20, 1860. When a state leaves a country it’s called seceding. This means they didn’t want to be a part of the United States any more and wanted to make their own government. By February of 1861 a number of states had seceded including Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Later, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and would join them. When the Southern states actually seceded and formed their own country, Abraham Lincoln and many others were shocked. They didn’t think that the states would really leave. When President Lincoln became president he was determined to reunite all the states under one government. Map of the Confederate States of America by Nicholas F. Click to see larger view Why did the Southern States leave? There were a number of reasons why the Southern States wanted to leave. A few of the major reasons were:
State rights – The leaders in the South wanted the states to make most of their own laws. In the North, people wanted a stronger national government that would make the same laws for all the states. Slavery – Most of the Southern states had economies based on farming and felt they needed enslaved labor to help them farm. The North was more industrialized and much of the North had made slavery illegal. The South was afraid that the Northern states would vote to make slavery illegal in all the states. Western States – As there were more and more western states added to the growing United States, the Southern states were worried that this would mean less power and voting rights. Abraham Lincoln – When Abraham Lincoln was elected president, it was the final straw for the Southern states. Lincoln was against slavery and wanted a strong federal government, two things the South did not agree with.
Jefferson Davis by Brady National Photographic Art Gallery Who led the Confederation? The President of the Confederation was Jefferson Davis from Mississippi. The Confederation had its own set of laws called the Confederate Constitution. Military leaders for the Confederation Army included Robert E.
Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and James Longstreet. The Confederation acted like an official government. They had their own money, their own capital city (it was first in Montgomery, Alabama and later in Richmond, Virginia), and they tried to form alliances with foreign countries like Britain and France. Britain and France did not recognize the Confederation as a country, however.
Neither did any other foreign country. Not having allies hurt the Southern states in the end. Activities
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What is a confederate in psychology synonym?
(psychology) An actor who participates in a psychological experiment pretending to be a subject but in actuality working for the researcher. synonym ▲ Synonym: stooge.
What is a Confederate Milgram?
Procedure – Volunteers were recruited for a controlled experiment investigating “learning” (re: ethics: deception). Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional, from the New Haven area. They were paid $4.50 for just turning up. At the beginning of the experiment, they were introduced to another participant, a confederate of the experimenter (Milgram). They drew straws to determine their roles – learner or teacher – although this was fixed, and the confederate was always the learner. The “learner” (Mr. Wallace) was strapped to a chair with electrodes. After he has learned a list of word pairs given to him to learn, the “teacher” tests him by naming a word and asking the learner to recall its partner/pair from a list of four possible choices. The learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose), and for each of these, the teacher gave him an electric shock. When the teacher refused to administer a shock, the experimenter was to give a series of orders/prods to ensure they continued. There were four prods, and if one was not obeyed, then the experimenter (Mr.
What is the purpose of Confederate?
The Confederacy was formed to maintain and expand the Southern way of life, especially the practice of slavery. Immediately following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1960, seven states seceded from the Union. South Carolina was the first state to do so.
How do you use Confederate in a sentence?
He was found to have confederates on both sides of the border. He then moved to seize power for himself and a few confederates.
Why did the Confederates lose?
Explanations for Confederate defeat in the Civil War can be broken into two categories: some historians argue that the Confederacy collapsed largely because of social divisions within Southern society, while others emphasize the Union’s military defeat of Confederate armies.
What is the simple meaning of confederate?
Confederate in American English 3. a person, group, nation, or state united with another or others for a common purpose; ally; associate.4. an associate in an unlawful act or plot; accomplice.
What is a confederate strategy?
The basic war aim of the Confederacy, like that of the United States in the Revolution, was to defend a new nation from conquest. Confederates looked for inspiration to the heroes of 1776, who had triumphed over greater odds than southerners faced in 1861.
What is a confederate system in simple terms?
Confederate system – system of government in which nations or states agree to join together under a central government, to which the nations or states grant certain powers. The United States had a confederate system of government under the Articles of Confederation, from 1781 to 1789.,,
Is Belgium a confederation?
Federalism / Confederalism Position Paper | Year 2013 Federalism / Confederalism For quite a while now, there have been debates in Belgium about the form its state ought to take. According to Article 1 of the Constitution, Belgium “is a federal State composed of Communities and Regions”.
Many analyses have shown, however, that there are a few so-called “confederal features” to the state system as well. Various political parties, moreover, are calling – or have called – for Belgium to be transformed in the next round of state reforms into a true confederation. But what do the parties hope to achievethrough this appeal? Do they use the term “confederalism” in the sense in which it is used in comparative state law? Or are they thinking of something else, a confederalism “Belgian style”? If the latter, what exactly does that consist of? This contribution seeks to bring some conceptual clarity into the debate.
The classic theory of confederalism, about which there is widespread consensus among lawyers, is taken as the golden thread. Confederalism is, according to that theory, a relationship between states that agree, in a treaty, to form a confederation in order to work together in a number of different areas.
- This confederation is not itself a state, but does have its own institutions that represent the participating states.
- It has a limited number of powers assigned to it in the treaty.
- In principle such a treaty can also be terminated.
- In this article, three historical examples of confederation (the United States, Switzerland and Germany) are considered, as well as the few confederations that still exist today.
Contemporary Belgium is not one of them. Rather, Belgium today exhibits all the characteristics of a federal state. It is true that the bipartite nature of the country, which is made up chiefly of Flemish and French-speaking citizens, and the mechanisms available to protect the French-speaking minority within the federal institutions (an ‘alarm bell’ and special majority provisions in Parliament, parity in the cabinet), mean that the decision-making process in Parliament often resembles a negotiation between the representatives of two political communities.
To qualify a state system as confederal, however, this is not sufficient. The plans for a future “confederal” Belgium being put forward by the political parties cover a multitude of meanings. They may refer either to a deepening of the current form of federalism (e.g. by allocating most of the powers to the constitutive states or by no longer assigning residual powers to the federal state), or to a form of confederalism in which the constitutive states enjoy the so called “Kompetenz-Kompetenz”, and assign various competences to the confederation by means of a treaty.
For the sake of clarity in the democratic debate, this contribution calls for greater conceptual orthodoxy. : Federalism / Confederalism
Is Switzerland a Confederacy?
Swiss Federalism Powers are allocated to the Confederation, the cantons and the communes in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. The Confederation only undertakes tasks that the cantons are unable to perform or which require uniform regulation by the Confederation.
What is a modern example of a Confederacy?
Switzerland – Switzerland, officially known as the Swiss Confederation, is an example of a modern country that traditionally refers to itself as a confederation because the official (and traditional) name of Switzerland in German ( the majority language of the Swiss ) is Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (literally “Swiss Comradeship by Oath”), an expression which was translated into the Latin Confoederatio Helvetica (Helvetic Confederation).
It had been a confederacy since its inception in 1291 as the Old Swiss Confederacy, which was originally created as an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps, until it became a federation in 1848 but it retains the name of Confederacy for reasons of historical tradition. The confederacy facilitated management of common interests (such as freedom from external domination especially from the Habsburg Empire, the development of republican institutions in a Europe dominated by monarchies and free trade), and it ensured peace between the different cultural entities of the area.
After the Sonderbund War of 1847, when some of the Catholic cantons of Switzerland attempted to set up a separate union ( Sonderbund in German) against the Protestant majority, a vote was held and the majority of the cantons approved the new Federal Constitution which changed the political system to one of a federation,
Why were Confederates called Dutch?
Their name for their language is deutsch, pronounced much like the English word Dutch. As a result, most German immigrants, and their descendants, were popularly known as ‘Dutchmen.’ Most of these refugees were fiercely opposed to slavery, and thousands of them flocked to the Union army.
When was the term Confederate first used?
Confederate (adj.) late 14c., ‘allied, united in a league,’ from Late Latin confoederatus ‘leagued together,’ past participle of confoederare ‘to unite by a league’ (see confederate (v.)). Meaning ‘of or belonging to the Confederate States of America’ is from 1861.
Why did the Confederates fight?
Fact #1: The Civil War was fought between the Northern and the Southern states from 1861-1865. The American Civil War was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, a collection of eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861.
The conflict began primarily as a result of the long-standing disagreement over the institution of slavery. On February 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. Senator and Secretary of War, was elected President of the Confederate States of America by the members of the Confederate constitutional convention.
After four bloody years of conflict, the United States defeated the Confederate States. In the end, the states that were in rebellion were readmitted to the United States, and the institution of slavery was abolished nation-wide. Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Library of Congress Fact #2: Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States during the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin in Kentucky. He worked as a shopkeeper and a lawyer before entering politics in the 1840s.
Alarmed by his anti-slavery stance, seven southern states seceded soon after he was elected president in 1860—with four more states to soon follow. Lincoln declared that he would do everything necessary to keep the United States united as one country. He refused to recognize the southern states as an independent nation and the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861.
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the areas of the country that “shall then be in rebellion against the United States.” The Emancipation Proclamation laid the groundwork for the eventual freedom of slaves across the country.
Lincoln won re-election in 1864 against opponents who wanted to sign a peace treaty with the southern states. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer. Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning. Fact #3: The issues of slavery and central power divided the United States.
Slavery was concentrated mainly in the southern states by the mid-19th century, where slaves were used as farm laborers, artisans, and house servants. Chattel slavery formed the backbone of the largely agrarian southern economy. In the northern states, industry largely drove the economy.
- Many people in the north and the south believed that slavery was immoral and wrong, yet the institution remained, which created a large chasm on the political and social landscape.
- Southerners felt threatened by the pressure of northern politicians and “abolitionists,” who included the zealot John Brown, and claimed that the federal government had no power to end slavery, impose certain taxes, force infrastructure improvements, or influence western expansion against the wishes of the state governments.
While some northerners felt that southern politicians wielded too much power in the House and the Senate and that they would never be appeased. Still, from the earliest days of the United States through the antebellum years, politicians on both sides of the major issues attempted to find a compromise that would avoid the splitting of the country, and ultimately avert a war.
The Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and many others, all failed to steer the country away from secession and war. In the end, politicians on both sides of the aisle dug in their heels. Eleven states left the United States in the following order and formed the Confederate States of America: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Fact #4: The Civil War began when Southern troops bombarded Fort Sumter, South Carolina. When the southern states seceded from the Union, war was still not a certainty. Federal forts, barracks, and naval shipyards dotted the southern landscape. Many Regular Army officers clung tenaciously to their posts, rather than surrender their facilities to the growing southern military presence.
President Lincoln attempted to resupply these garrisons with food and provisions by sea. The Confederacy learned of Lincoln’s plans and demanded that the forts surrender under threat of force. When the U.S. soldiers refused, South Carolinians bombarded Fort Sumter in the center of Charleston harbor. After a 34-hour battle, the soldiers inside the fort surrendered to the Confederates.
Legions of men from north and south rushed to their respective flags in the ensuing patriotic fervor. Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor: 12th & 13th of April, 1861. Library of Congress Fact #5: The North had more men and war materials than the South. At the beginning of the Civil War, 22 million people lived in the North and 9 million people (nearly 4 million of whom were slaves) lived in the South.
The North also had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more farmland. On paper, these advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States. However, the Confederates were fighting defensively on territory that they knew well. They also had the advantage of the sheer size of the Southern Confederacy.
Which meant that the northern armies would have to capture and hold vast quantities of land across the south. Still, too, the Confederacy maintained some of the best ports in North America—including New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, Norfolk, and Wilmington.
Thus, the Confederacy was able to mount a stubborn resistance. Fact #6: The bloodiest battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Civil War devastated the Confederate states. The presence of vast armies throughout the countryside meant that livestock, crops, and other staples were consumed very quickly.
In an effort to gather fresh supplies and relieve the pressure on the Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched a daring invasion of the North in the summer of 1863. He was defeated by Union General George G.
- Meade in a three-day battle near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that left nearly 51,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action.
- While Lee’s men were able to gather the vital supplies, they did little to draw Union forces away from Vicksburg, which fell to Federal troops on July 4, 1863.
- Many historians mark the twin Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Mississippi, as the “turning point” in the Civil War.
In November of 1863, President Lincoln traveled to the small Pennsylvania town and delivered the Gettysburg Address, which expressed firm commitment to preserving the Union and became one of the most iconic speeches in American history. Fact #7: Ulysses S.
Grant and Robert E. Lee did not meet on the field of battle until May of 1864. Arguably the two most famous military personalities to emerge from the American Civil War were Ohio born Ulysses S. Grant, and Virginia born Robert E. Lee, The two men had very little in common. Lee was from a well respected First Family of Virginia, with ties to the Continental Army and the founding fathers of the nation.
While Grant was from a middle-class family with no martial or family political ties. Both men graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the old army as well as the Mexican-American War. Lee was offered command of the federal army amassing in Washington, in 1861, but he declined the command and threw his hat in with the Confederacy.
- Lee’s early war career got off to a rocky start, but he found his stride in June of 1862 after he assumed command of what he dubbed the Army of Northern Virginia.
- Grant, on the other hand, found early success in the war but was haunted by rumors of alcoholism.
- By 1863, the two men were by far the best generals on their respective sides.
In March of 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and brought to the Eastern Theater of the war, where he and Lee engaged in a relentless campaign from May of 1864 to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House eleven months later. Fact #8: The North won the Civil War.
- After four years of conflict, the major Confederate armies surrendered to the United States in April of 1865 at Appomattox Court House and Bennett Place,
- The war bankrupted much of the South, left its roads, farms, and factories in ruins, and all but wiped out an entire generation of men who wore the blue and the gray.
More than 620,000 men died in the Civil War, more than any other war in American history. The southern states were occupied by Union soldiers, rebuilt, and gradually re-admitted to the United States over the course of twenty difficult years known as the Reconstruction Era. A battle-scarred house in Atlanta, Georgia. Library of Congress Fact #9: After the war was over, the Constitution was amended to free the slaves, to assure “equal protection under the law” for American citizens, and to grant black men the right to vote.
- During the war, Abraham Lincoln freed some slaves and allowed freedmen to join the Union Army as the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.).
- It was clear to many that it was only a matter of time before slavery would be fully abolished.
- As the war drew to a close, but before the southern states were re-admitted to the United States, the northern states added the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
The amendments are also known as the “Civil War Amendments.” The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, the 14th Amendment guaranteed that citizens would receive “equal protection under the law,” and the 15th Amendment granted black men the right to vote.
The 14th Amendment has played an ongoing role in American society as different groups of citizens continue to lobby for equal treatment by the government. Fact #10: Many Civil War battlefields are threatened by development. The United States government has identified 384 battles that had a significant impact on the larger war.
Many of these battlefields have been developed—turned into shopping malls, pizza parlors, housing developments, etc.—and many more are threatened by development. Since the end of the Civil War, veterans and other citizens have struggled to preserve the fields on which Americans fought and died.
What does Confederate mean in political terms?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league ) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issues, such as defence, foreign relations, internal trade or currency, with the central government being required to provide support for all its members.
- Confederalism represents a main form of intergovernmentalism, defined as any form of interaction around states that takes place on the basis of sovereign independence or government.
- The nature of the relationship among the member states constituting a confederation varies considerably.
- Likewise, the relationship between the member states and the general government and their distribution of powers varies.
Some looser confederations are similar to international organisations, Other confederations with stricter rules may resemble federal systems, Since the member states of a confederation retain their sovereignty, they have an implicit right of secession,
The political philosopher Emmerich de Vattel said: “Several sovereign and independent states may unite themselves together by a perpetual confederacy without each, in particular, ceasing to be a perfect state. The deliberations in common will offer no violence to the sovereignty of each member”. Under a confederation, compared to a federal state, the central authority is relatively weak.
Decisions made by the general government in a unicameral legislature, a council of the member states, require subsequent implementation by the member states to take effect; they are not laws acting directly upon the individual but have more the character of interstate agreements.
What is the opposite of Confederate army?
American Civil War | ||||||||
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- 110,000+ † / ( DOW )
- 230,000+ accident/disease deaths
- 25,000–30,000 died in Confederate prisons
365,000+ total dead
- 282,000+ wounded
- 181,193 captured
Total: 828,000+ casualties
- 94,000+ † / ( DOW )
- 26,000–31,000 died in Union prisons
290,000+ total dead
- 137,000+ wounded
- 436,658 captured
Total: 864,000+ casualties
- 50,000 free civilians dead
- 80,000+ slaves dead (disease)
- Total: 616,222 –1,000,000+ dead
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names ) was a civil war in the United States, It was fought between the Union (“the North”) and the Confederacy (“the South”), the latter formed by states that had seceded, The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.
Decades of political controversy over slavery were brought to a head by the victory in the 1860 U.S. presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery’s expansion into the western territories. An initial seven southern slave states responded to Lincoln’s victory by seceding from the United States and, in February 1861, forming the Confederacy.
The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. Led by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy asserted control over about a third of the U.S. population in eleven of the 34 U.S. states that then existed. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued.
During 1861–1862 in the war’s Western Theater, the Union made significant permanent gains—though in the war’s Eastern Theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in states in rebellion to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country.
To the west, the Union destroyed the Confederate’s river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans, The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, In 1863, Confederate General Robert E.
Lee ‘s incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to General Ulysses S. Grant ‘s command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions.
This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, The last significant battles raged around the ten-month Siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond, The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war.
A wave of Confederate surrenders followed. On April 14, just five days after Lee’s surrender, Lincoln was assassinated, As a practical matter, the war ended with the May 26 surrender of the Department of the Trans-Mississippi but the conclusion of the American Civil War lacks a clear and precise historical end date.
Confederate ground forces continued surrendering past the May 26 surrender date until June 23. By the end of the war, much of the South’s infrastructure was destroyed, especially its railroads. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million enslaved black people were freed.
The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The Civil War is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in U.S. history, It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate,
Of particular interest is the persisting myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, The American Civil War was among the first wars to use industrial warfare, Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were all widely used during the war.
What is the opposite of a Confederate?
What is the opposite of confederate?
independent | separate |
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nonintegrated | freestanding |
unintegrated | discrete |
isolated | selfstanding |
free-standing | self-contained |
What’s the difference between Confederate and Union?
In general, the Union was more industrialized, anti-slavery and believed in a larger federal government. In contrast, the Confederacy believed in state rights, was pro-slavery and had an economy based on agriculture.