confederacy
noun/kənˈfɛdəɹəsi/
Etymology From Middle English confederacie, from Anglo-Norman confederacie, from Latin cōnfoederātiō. Doublet of confederation.
1
An alliance.
2
Government, Politics A state where the sovereign constituent units delegate their authority to the centre.
3
Specifically, an instance of a decentralized governing structure among the indigenous peoples of North America.
- The Blackfoot, Iroquois, and Sioux peoples all were governed as confederacies. There were also multi-ethnic confederacies, such as the Iron Confederacy made up of the Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Stoney, and Saulteaux.
- Derived terms
- Old Swiss Confederacy, Swiss Confederacy
- Related terms
- intergovernmentalism