---
title: "How the US federation was built | Manolis Huuki | Negotiator 40"
titleOriginal: "USA:n liittovaltiokehitys | Manolis Huuki | Neuvottelija 40"
episodeNumber: "40"
guest: "Manolis Huuki"
datePublished: 2020-10-17
duration: "21:57"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs"
captionsVtt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep40-usan-liittovaltiokehitys-manolis-huuki/captions.en.vtt
captionsSrt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep40-usan-liittovaltiokehitys-manolis-huuki/captions.en.srt
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["geopolitics","finnish_economy_policy"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from the MacWhisper SRT transcript, YouTube metadata and the neuvottelija.fi episode record. Chapter timecodes are taken from the transcript; no caption files are published with this page."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/46-neuvottelija-40-usan-liittovaltiokehitys-manolis-huuki"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep40-usan-liittovaltiokehitys-manolis-huuki/
---
# How the US federation was built | Manolis Huuki | Negotiator 40

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=0s) The Socrates of Kannus
- [02:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=155s) Kos, Greece and a caretaker finance minister
- [05:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=307s) Taxation without representation and the war of independence
- [07:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=468s) From the Articles of Confederation to a federation
- [10:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=619s) Civil war, states' rights and the federal debt
- [12:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=771s) What has flipped — and the tax-rate arithmetic
- [15:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=924s) Common defence, NATO and who would command
- [17:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=1078s) The Huuki Show and its three strands
- [20:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs&t=1230s) Why more substantive podcasts are needed

## Summary

Huuki Show host and political history student Manolis Huuki walks through the birth of the American federation: taxation without representation, the Articles of Confederation, the quarrel between federalists and anti-federalists, the three-fifths compromise and the federal debt that took off after the Civil War. The second half applies all of it to the European Union. The sharpest observation is numerical: US federal and state government together run at around 30 per cent of GDP, while Finland alone is at 42 — so copying a Hamiltonian moment would mean moving taxes to Brussels and cutting the rate, not building a new layer on top.

## What is discussed

- **Taxation without representation.** The thirteen colonies paid taxes to Britain with no vote in its parliament; the Boston Tea Party of the 1770s and the battle of Lexington turned grievance into independence, with John Locke's fundamental liberties in the background.
- **Confederation to federation.** The Articles of Confederation left a union so loose that states ran different currencies. Veterans of the war concluded it was insufficient, and external threat — Spain in Florida, Britain in Canada, France in Louisiana — pushed the decision.
- **The compromises.** Ten amendments arrived immediately as a settlement between federalists (Alexander Hamilton) and anti-federalists (Thomas Jefferson), alongside the three-fifths compromise on counting slaves towards population.
- **Two questions in the secession.** Slavery, and the less-discussed matter of states' right to decide their own affairs against a federal government steadily accruing power.
- **The debt.** A common currency from the early 1800s, but borrowing accelerated after the Civil War and spiked in both world wars. Federal power kept growing, including through 1940s Supreme Court rulings.
- **The arithmetic nobody ran.** US federal spending is about 20 per cent of GDP and the states about 10, roughly 30 together; Finland's total tax rate alone is about 42. Copying the model means moving taxes to Brussels and cutting the rate.
- **What went unsaid.** Federalisation moves decision-making over Finnish money to Brussels; what remains nationally are local special taxes, while the federal level justifies large expenditure through emissions trading, plastic taxes and arms procurement.
- **NATO versus an EU army.** NATO exists for a war situation and is not the same kind of permanent structure. If each state has a national guard and the federation a commander-in-chief, who commands? Reference to Vesa Kanniainen's episode (Negotiator 33).
- **The likely order.** Debt union, then transfers, then common foreign and security policy — shrinking the Finnish president's role, a consequence Huuki argues is not being debated.
- **The Huuki Show.** Local politics, learning unfamiliar sectors, and a party-conference interview tour suggested by professor Markku Jokisipilä in 2019 — with an argument that such channels surface debate the mainstream does not.

## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [USA:n liittovaltiokehitys | Manolis Huuki | Neuvottelija 40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF7BTsy1tQs).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/46-neuvottelija-40-usan-liittovaltiokehitys-manolis-huuki).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — How the US federation was built | Manolis Huuki | Negotiator 40, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep40-usan-liittovaltiokehitys-manolis-huuki/, 2020-10-17. For quotes include episode 40 and timestamp.