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A superstate is defined as "a large and powerful state formed when several smaller countries unite",^[1] "A large and powerful state formed from a federation or union of nations".^[2]
This is distinct from the concept of superpower, although these are sometimes seen together. It is also distinct from the concept of empire, where one nation dominates other nations through military, political, and economic power.

Use

In the early 20th century, "superstate" had a similar definition as today's supranational organisations. In a 1927 article by Edward A. Harriman on the League of Nations, a superstate was defined as merely "an organisation, of which a state is a member, which is superior to the member themselves", in that "[a] complete superstate has legislative, executive and judicial organs to make, to execute and to interpret its laws". According to this definition, Harriman saw the League of Nations as a "rudimentary superstate", and the United States as "an example of a complete and perfect superstate".^[3]

In World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, first published in 1938, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, described the anticipated world government of that religion as the "world’s future super-state" with the Bahá'í Faith as the "State Religion of an independent and Sovereign Power."^[4]

In the 1970s, academic literature used the term "superstate" to indicate a particularly rich and powerful state, in a similar fashion to the term superpower.^[5]

In contemporary political debate, especially the one centred on the European Union, the term "superstate" is used to indicate a development in which the Union develops from its current de facto status^[6] as a confederation to become a fully-fledged federation.
For instance, Glyn Morgan contrasts the perspective of a "European superstate" to the ones of "a Europe of nation-states" and of "a post-sovereign European polity".^[7]:202 In her definition, a "European superstate is nothing more than a sovereign state - a tried and tested type of polity that predominates in the modern world - operating on a European wide scale",^[7]:204 i.e., "a unitary European state".^[7]:ix Especially after the European debt crisis, economic literature started to discuss the role of European union as a European superstate. In particular, ^[8] compared the emergence of a debt union to the federal structure of Germany.

The term was famously used by Margaret Thatcher in her 1988 Bruges speech, when she decried the perspective of "a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels",^[9] and has since entered the eurosceptic lexicon.
Tony Blair argued in 2000 that he welcomed an EU as a "superpower, not a superstate".^[10]

Possible superstates

• Achaemenid Empire


• Han Empire


• Magadha Kingdom


• Mitanni Kingdom


• Urartu


• Zhou Kingdom

Fictional superstates

• Atlantic Federation (Gundam anime metaseries)


• Earth Alliance in :
  
  
  
  • Babylon 5
  
  
  • 
    Gundam in the Cosmic Era timeline of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
    
  
  
  • The History of Galaxy novel series
  
  
  
  


• 
  Eastasia, Eurasia and Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four
  


• Interstellar Alliance


• Fleet of Worlds


• Galactic Empire (Star Wars)


• Galactic Empire (Isaac Asimov universe)


• Galactic Republic


• Imperium of Mankind


• Mega-City One


• Meccania


• United Federation of Planets


• Solarian League


• The World State


• United States of Europe

See also

• China


• Imperial Federation


• India


• List of countries and dependencies by area


• Organization of American States


• Soviet Union

Notes