States would function independently of each other in what is called a confederacy system of government. Essentially, there are three widely known government systems defined through the power structure. These are mainly the unitary states, federations and confederations. Unitary states form the largest group around the world. The federations include countries such as the USA whereas confederations are evident in countries such as Switzerland.
With confederations, there is little or no centralization. Typically, such a state is normally a collection of closely connected independent states. This is different from a federation because a federation has a central government with some level of power. In unitary states, the country’s government is the ruling and highest authority in the land.