51st state

This article is about a hypothetical U.S. state. For the song, see 51st State. For the film, see The 51st State.

51st state, in American political discourse, is a phrase that refers to territories considered candidates for addition to the fifty states already part of the Union. While sometimes used in a serious political context, it is often used humorously to refer to Canada or, less often, the United Kingdom or Northern Ireland.

The term is also used in Canada and other countries as a term signifying negative American influence viewed as excessive. In Europe, people who believe their local or national culture has become too Americanized sometimes use the term "51st state" in critical reference to their respective countries.

Potential candidates

Under Article IV, Section Three of the United States Constitution, which outlines the relationship between the states, the Congress has the power to admit new states to the union. The states are required to give "full faith and credit" to the acts of each other's legislatures and courts, which is generally held to include the recognition of legal contracts, marriages, and criminal judgments. The states are guaranteed military and civil defense by the federal government, which is also obligated to ensure that the government of each state remains a republic. New states are admitted into the Union by the precedents and procedures established by the Northwest Ordinance. Following the precedent established by the Enabling Act of 1802, an Enabling Act must be passed by Congress as a prerequisite to admission. The act authorizes the people of a territory to frame a constitution, and lays down the Congress' requirements that must be met before it will allow statehood.

District of Columbia

Main articles: D.C. Statehood and New Columbia

The District of Columbia is widely recognized to be, along with Puerto Rico, one of the most likely candidates for statehood in the near future; one being a federal district and the other a commonwealth. (See D.C. Statehood). Of the potential candidates, citizens of the District of Columbia tend to be most supportive of statehood, yet this would likely require amendment of the United States Constitution. D.C. residents who support this movement sometimes use the Revolutionary War protest motto "Taxation without representation", denoting their lack of Congressional representation; the phrase is now printed automatically on all newly issued D.C. license plates, while for a fee (the usual "vanity plate" fee) a driver may choose to have the D.C. Web address printed instead. President Bill Clinton's presidential limo had the "Taxation..." license plate late in his term, while President George W. Bush had the limo's plates changed shortly after beginning his term in office.

This position was carried by the D.C. Statehood Party, a minor party; it has since merged with the local Green Party affiliate to form the D.C. Statehood Green Party. The nearest this movement ever came to success was in 1978, when Congress passed the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment. Two years later in 1980, local citizens passed an initiative calling for a constitutional convention for a new state. In 1982, voters ratified the constitution of the state, which was to be called New Columbia. The drive for statehood stalled in 1985, however, when the D.C. Voting Rights Amendment failed because not enough states ratified the amendment within the seven-year span specified.

Another proposed option would be to have Maryland, from which the current land was ceded, retake the District of Columbia, as Virginia has already done for its part. This would give D.C. residents the benefit of statehood while precluding the creation of a 51st state.

Puerto Rico

See also: Puerto Rican politics
Puerto Rican statehood referenda have been consistently, though narrowly, unsuccessful. In each referendum, statehood supporters are matched almost equally by supporters of maintaining the status quo (the balance of the votes being cast by supporters of full independence), although support for statehood has risen in each successive popular referendum.

Other/former US territories

Other less likely contenders are Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, both of which are unincorporated organized territories of the United States, the Northern Mariana Islands, which is a commonwealth like Puerto Rico, and American Samoa, an unorganized, unincorporated territory. Due to their very small populations, if they gained statehood, these territories would be over-represented in Congress if they had even one Representative. However, the representation between the Virgin Islands and the small states would be no less unproportioned than the unproportional representation that already present, for example, between California and Wyoming in the United States Senate. Other proposals call for the Virgin Islands to be admitted with Puerto Rico as one state (often known as the proposed "Commonwealth of Prusvi", for Puerto Rico/US Virgin Islands), and for the amalgamation of U.S territories or former territories in the Pacific Ocean, in the manner of the "Greater Hawaii" concept of the 1960s. Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands would be admitted as one state, possibly with the Marshall Islands, Palau, and perhaps the Federated States of Micronesia joining with the two U.S. territories. Those three countries were once part of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and have many military and economic ties to the United States (for example, all three use the U.S. Dollar as their official currency). American Samoa could possibly be part of such a state, or even become a county of Hawaii if American Samoa no longer wished to be a territory.

Some sectors of Filipino society advocate reannexation of the Philippines into the US, but this time as up to three states: Luzón, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

From current states

Main article: List of U.S. state secession proposals

It is constitutionally possible for new states to be formed by reorganizing current states. No state, however, may be formed within the jurisdiction of another, or by the joining of different states or parts of different states, without the consent of all state legislatures concerned.

Another proposal has been for New York City to secede from New York State (See New York City secession), which has been reciprocated by a call for Upstate New York to secede (See Upstate New York's Statehood Movement). A similar circumstance has been proposed with the secession of Chicago from Illinois since over a half of the population of Illinois resides in the metropolitan area. Had World War II not intervened, it is possible that the counties of southern Oregon and northern California might have seceded from their respective states to form a new "State of Jefferson". Although often referred to as a possible 51st state, it would in fact have been the 49th, given that Alaska and Hawaii did not become states until 1959. Also there have been brief calls for a 51st state named the State of Lincoln in 1996, 1999, and 2005. The state would be made of Eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle. During the late 1700s, portions of North Carolina and Tennessee joined to form an alleged "State of Franklin" and while "lawmakers" were elected to its alleged "Legislature," Congress never admitted the "State of Franklin" into the Union.

Similar junctions have attempted to take place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which some wish to secede (sometimes along with adjoining counties of northern Wisconsin) in order to make a state called "Superior".

It has been proposed that the eastern counties of the states of Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware (the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Hampton Roads, and the full state of Delaware) secede in order to make a new state, which would be known as Delmarva.

Use of "51st State" internationally

Because of their cultural similarities and close alliances with the United States, it is said in jest that some countries are the 51st state. In other countries, movements with various degrees of support and seriousness have proposed U.S. statehood.

Guyana

There is an organization dedicated to the integration of Guyana with the United States, GuyanaUSA ^*. Their claim is based on the basis that Guyana has strong connections with the United States, by terms of people (100,000 people have joint Guyanese-American citizenship and 350,000 Guyanese live in US, out of 700,000 Guyanese).

Taiwan

When the San Francisco Peace Treaty and Treaty of Taipei were agreed, the World War Two Allies were given the internationally agreed responsibility of administration of the former Formosa. The ongoing debates and disagreements in regard to the legal and political status of Taiwan remains, with some commentators believing it to be part of the People's Republic of China, under the authority of an illegal or renegade leadership, or that it is an independent or quasi-independent state that seeks more international recognition from members of the United Nations, functioning under the legal or quasi-legal authority of the Republic of China government. A recent poll conducted in Taiwan showed that 15% of the people asked about where the future of Taiwan lay, believed that it should try to become the 51st state of the United States of America. Whether this is likely to happen, even with greater popular local, American, or indeed international support remains unlikely, as this would cause great difficulty in Sino-American relations since the government of The People's Republic of China regards Taiwan as an integral part of that nation. Neither the San Francisco Peace Treaty nor the Treaty of Taipei specified who should exercise sovereignty over Taiwan after the Allied Forces had relinquished control. The People's Republic of China was not signatory to either treaty.

Afghanistan and Iraq

Because of the amount of American Military involvement in Iraq some have labeled Iraq as the 51st state. One argument in favor of this position is that it was American intervention that established the first freely-elected Iraqi parliament since the rise to power of Saddam Hussein. This position is often forwarded by those who consider the Iraqi government to be a puppet of the U.S. This accusation also stems from the allegation that Iraqi security forces are incapable of operating effectively without U.S support.

Similar observations are often made regarding Afghanistan, although U.S. activity is not as pronounced there, given the more extensively international nature of the peacekeeping forces there, and that the entire country is impoverished in contrast to the United States which is a developed nation.

Canada

In Canada, "the 51st state" (or sometimes "the Maple Leaf state") is an emotional trigger phrase generally used in such a way as to imply that if a certain political course is taken, Canada's destiny will be to become "the 51st state".

Becoming "the 51st state" is usually raised either as a potential consequence of adopting policies that propose greater integration or cooperation with the United States (such as Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in 1988, or the current debate over the creation of a common defense perimeter), or as a potential consequence of not adopting proposals intended to resolve the issue of Quebec sovereignty (such as the Charlottetown Accord in 1992, or the Clarity Act in 1999.)

The phrase is usually used in local political debates, in polemic writing or in private conversations. It is rarely used by politicians themselves in a public context, although at certain times in Canadian history political parties have used other similarly loaded imagery. For example, in the 1988 federal election, the anti-Free Trade Liberals ran an ad in which Tory strategists, upon the adoption of the agreement, slowly erased the Canada-US border from a desktop map of North America. Within days, however, the Tories responded with an ad which featured the border being drawn back on, as an announcer intoned "Here's where we draw the line."

It should also be noted that the 1988 Free Trade Agreement was implemented, followed by the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993, and the failed Charlottetown Accord would supposedly lead to Canada into becoming "the 51st state".

A few fringe groups in Canada have actively campaigned in favour of Canadian annexation by the United States, although they have not attracted much mainstream attention. See Annexationist movements of Canada and Alberta Separatism.

In the United States, "the 51st state" when applied to Canada is used as an insult to imply Canada's relative insignificance and Canadians are sometimes disparagingly referred to as "51st staters." The pejorative nature of the term is particularly evident given that Canada already contains thirteen separate jurisdictions (which hold powers similar to U.S. states), and that the territory together is already larger than all 50 current U.S. states combined.

Alberta

See also: Alberta separatism

Alberta is sometimes referred to as "Canada's Texas"; the two are somewhat similar in terms of social values (both being socially conservative) and economic base (Alberta is the center of Canada's petroleum industry). A number of Albertans have expressed dissatisfaction at Canada's policies towards the province, particularly with regards to national energy policy and equalization payments. Some Albertans accuse Canada of stealing money from the province's vast oil reserves to distribute to the rest of the country. An August 2005 poll published by the Western Standard stated that 42% of respondents felt that Alberta should explore its options outside of Canada^*. These include separating from Canada by itself, separating from Canada along with other western provinces or joining the United States of America.

Israel

A number of websites assert or joke that Israel is the 51st state due to the annual funding it receives from the United States. Commentator Richard Reeves has also used this trope.^* This is an issue fraught with political and social implications, sometimes involving questions of anti-semitism, and is to some minds central to the conflicts surrounding the Middle-East.

United Kingdom

The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, and the influences of American popular culture and politics on British society, has led some British commentators to suggest that their country has become the de facto 51st state. Some have semi-seriously suggested that the UK should join the U.S. (such as this example), as it would thus become by far the wealthiest and most populous state in the Union – and therefore the most politically influential; however, either the United Kingdom would have to become a republic, or the United States would have to amend its constitution, in which Article IV, Section 4 begins, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government". American influence, both real and imagined, has attracted widespread criticism in the UK, often with concerns about American influences subsuming both tradition and innovation.

In cultural terms, critics associate American influences with commercialisation and "dumbing down". Economically, supermarkets and fast food retailers are seen as having been imported from the US to the detriment of small businesses. The film The 51st State explores the supposed migration of American criminality to the UK, particularly drug trafficking and gangs. Politically, the decline of the British Empire and the growth of American influence is seen by many as inextricably linked, with the loss of Britain's colonies and naval dominance being the price of American help during World War II; others believed Britain was cosying up to a new imperial power in an attempt to retain some influence in world affairs.

The presence of U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and other military facilities on British soil in the Cold War was taken as clear evidence of American influence, even as a complete reversal with Britain effectively becoming a de facto colonial possession of the U.S. - some critics borrowed a term from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, describing Britain as "Airstrip One". Critics on the political right expressed concern at the possible loss of sovereignty, and the apparent lack of reciprocity in the relationship - while Britain supported America in the Korean War, America did not support Britain during the Suez Crisis. Critics on the left were particularly exercised by Britain following America's lead in dealing with communist countries. Britain's rhetorical support for the U.S. during the Vietnam War led to mass protests in the U.K., although Britain made no military commitments. The view of Britain as America's stooge continued after the end of the Cold War, and was particularly re-awakened by Tony Blair's strong support of President Bush in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which led to Blair being characterised in the British press as "Bush's poodle" and referring to him as the "Governor of the 51st State".

Ireland

Nearly 40,000,000 Americans claim Irish ancestry, and both the United States and Ireland enjoy close economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties. Presently, the country boasts a higher standard of living than the United States. Like the U.S., Ireland enjoys low taxes relative to other members of the European Union. Today, some 100,000 Americans live in Ireland ^* and many Irish citizens are descendants of Irish emigrants to the United States.

Australia

Due to Australia's propinquity to America's foreign policy, Australia is sometimes (but not typically) mentioned as the 51st state. Since WWII, Australia has participated in most of the major wars that America has embarked on, including the Korean War, Vietnam War and the 2003 Iraq War. The perception of Australia as America's satellite was further highlighted during a 1999 interview by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, where he described Australia's role in Asia as America's deputy sheriff.

Use of "51st State" in popular culture

This section is incomplete; please add known uses.

The 51st State is a movie starring Samuel L Jackson and Robert Carlyle, set in Liverpool, England. The film makes fun of US-UK relations.
In The Simpsons, Saudi-Israelia (presumably a combination of Saudi Arabia and Israel) is mentioned as the 51st state in the episode "Future-Drama".
The album The Ghost of Cain by New Model Army features a track called "51st State"
The song "Heartland", on the album Infected, by The The, ends with the refrain "This is the 51st state of the U.S.A."
51st State - A novel by Peter Preston published in 1998, in which the United Kingdom leaves the European Union and becomes the 51st state of the USA. ISBN 0-670-88326-3
In the graphic novel Watchmen, the Dr. Manhattan-led U.S. victory in the Vietnam War is followed by Vietnam joining the Union as the 51st state.

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