the.com/confederacy
A team-up of states that keep their power, their borders, and most of their grudges.
means A loose alliance of states or groups that cooperate while each retains substantial independence and sovereignty.
from From Latin confoederare, to unite by treaty, built on foedus, a league or pact — the same root as federal, just looser at the joints.
Weak by designMembers keep power; the center stays deliberately feeble.
American flopThe 1781 Articles of Confederation failed within a decade.
Civil War labelThe 1861 South branded itself the Confederate States.