ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the problem of establishing European political unity in light of the historical experience of building federal nations. It shows that Europe's hidden federalists addressed the problem of forging unity out of national differences in an entirely different way than the constitutional architects behind the American, German and Swiss federations. The chapter also discusses the lessons today's European Union (EU) architects can learn from the births of American, German and Swiss nations. In the EU, political authority which decides on crucial issues for citizens' everyday lives is indeed removed from sight of European peoples. The most important lesson the European ruling elites might have learned from the experience of US nation building is that the political unity of a nation can be protected if the citizens are driven into a state of permanent indolence towards ideology and politics.
