| confederation | A group of states that willingly enter into an alliance to form a political unit for a common purpose, such as economic security or defense; it is highly interdependent but has a weak directorate organization, thus allowing the individual states to maintain a fairly high degree of sovereignty.
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| Council of the European Union | The most important decision-making body of the EU. The Council represents the member-states through each member's representatives, which can range from the head of state to specialized ministers (such as agriculture). Formerly known as the Council of Ministers.
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| Court of Auditors | An oversight institution within the EU. It is staffed by one individual from each member country and monitors the implementation of EU budgets and policies.
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| European Commission | A 20-member commission that serves as the bureaucratic organ of the European Union.
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| European Communities (EC) | Established in 1967, the EC was a single unit whose plural name (Communities) reflects the fact that it united the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community, and the European Atomic Energy Community under one organizational structure. The EC evolved into the European Union beginning in 1993.
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| European Economic Community (EEC) | The regional trade and economic organization established in Western Europe by the Treaty of Rome in 1958; also known as the Common Market.
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| European Ombudsman | An official of the European Union appointed by the European Parliament to investigate EU citizens' complaints about maladministration in the activities of EU bodies, excluding the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance.
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| federation | Also called a federal government, a power sharing governance structure in which the central authority and the member units each have substantial authority.
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| Hague system | Name given to the peace conferences held in the Netherlands in 1899 and 1907. They serve as the first example of an international attempt to improve the condition of humanity.
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| league | A governmental arrangement in which the centralized government is mostly symbolic and has little or no functional authority.
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| League of Nations | The first, true general international organization. It existed between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II and was the immediate predecessor of the United Nations.
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| limited membership council | A representative organization body of the UN that grants special status to members who have a greater stake, responsibility, or capacity in a particular area of concern. The UN Security Council is an example.
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| Maastricht Treaty | The most significant agreement in the recent history of the European Union (EU). The Maastricht Treaty was signed by leaders of the EU's 12 member-countries in December 1991 and outlined steps toward further political-economic integration.
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| plenary representative body | An assembly, such as the UN's General Assembly, that consists of all members of the main organization.
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| President of the Commission | Comparable to being president of the European Union (EU), this person is the director of the 25-member European Commission, the policy-making bureaucratic organ of the EU.
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| regional governments | A possible middle level of governance between the prevalent national governments of today and the world government that some people favor. The regional structure that comes closest to (but still well short of ) a regional government is the European Union.
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| supranational organizations | An organization that is founded and operates, at least in part, on the idea that international organizations can or should have authority higher than individual states and that those states should be subordinate to the supranational organization.
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| UN General Assembly (UNGA) | The main representative body of the United Nations, composed of all 192 member-states.
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| UN Security Council (UNSC) | The main peacekeeping organ of the United Nations. The Security Council has 15 members, including 5 permanent members.
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| Unitary government | One in which the central government has all or most of the power and the subordinate units have little or no functional authority.
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| United Nations (UN) | An international body created in 1945 with the intention of maintaining peace through the cooperation of its member-states. As part of its mission, it addresses human welfare issues such as the environment, human rights, population, and health. Its headquarters are located in New York City, and it was established following World War II to supersede the League of Nations.
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| world government | The concept of a supranational world authority to which current countries would surrender some or all of their sovereign authority.
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