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Comparative Federalism: Theory and Practice Comparative Federalism Comparative Federalism uses a comparative approach to explore the contemporary nature and meanings of federalism and federation. Providing both a detailed theoretical examination and fresh case studies, it clearly distinguishes between ‘federation’, a particular kind of state, and ‘feder- alism’, the thinking that drives and promotes it. Written in a lucid and accessible style, this new text: • analyses the conceptual bases of federalism and federation through the evolution of the intellectual debate on federalism, the American federal experience, the origins of federal states and the relationship between state- building and national integration; • explores comparative federalism and federation, looking at five main path- ways into comparative analysis via empirical studies on the USA, Canada, Australia, India, Malaysia, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the EU; • explores the pathology of federations – looking at failures, successes and the impact of globalisation – and concludes with an assessment of federal theory. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of federalism, devolution, comparative politics and government. Michael Burgess is Professor of Federal Studies and Director of the Centre for Federal Studies at the University of Kent. Comparative Federalism Theory and practice Michael Burgess First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2006 Michael Burgess This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catologue record for this book has been requested ISBN10 0–415–36454–X (hbk) ISBN10 0–415–36455–8 (pbk) ISBN13 978–0–415–36454–6 (hbk) ISBN13 978–0–415–36455–3 (pbk) Taylor & Francis Group is the Academic Division of T&F Informa plc. For Marie-Louise Contents Acknowledgements xi Introduction: the problem with studying federalism 1 PART I Concept and meaning 7 1 Federalism and federation: the quest for meaning 9 Introduction 9 Conceptual and methodological review (i) 10 Conceptual and methodological review (ii) 25 2 The American federal experience 50 Introduction 50 The antecedents of American federalism 51 Federation and confederation: Publius revisited 54 Federalism and federation: philosophical conceptions of individual and community 66 Conclusion: appearance and reality 71 3 Federalism and federation: the origins and formation of federal states 76 Introduction 76 The intellectual debate about the origins of federations 77 The Motives for federal union 81 A theory of circumstantial causation 97 Conclusion 100 viii Contents 4 Federalism, nationalism and the national state: legitimacy and the problem of national identity 102 Introduction 102 Federalism, federation and nationalism 103 Multinational federations in comparative perspective 107 National identity and legitimacy in multinational federations 111 Liberal nationalism in multinational federation 114 Conclusion 129 PART II Bases for comparative analysis 133 5 The comparative study of federal political systems 135 Introduction 135 The structure of federations 136 The sociological bases of federations 140 Political economy: the bases of ideology 144 Political parties and party systems 149 Constitutional reform and judicial review 156 Conclusion: the comparative study of federal political systems 160 6 The Anglo-American and Continental European federal political traditions 162 Introduction 162 The Continental European federal tradition 163 The Anglo-American federal tradition 177 Quebec federalism revisited 186 Conclusion: the convergence of two federal traditions 189 7 The concept of representation in federalism and federation 192 Introduction 192 The concept of representation 193 The democratic revolution: four developmental models 198 National and sub-national levels in federations 202 Second chambers and the problem of double representation 204 Conclusion: compounded representation for a compound republic 206 8 Asymmetrical federalism and federation 209 Introduction 209 The emergence of the concept of asymmetry 210 The concepts of symmetry and asymmetry explored 211 Contents ix The preconditions of asymmetry 215 Asymmetrical outcomes 217 Asymmetrical relations today 222 Conclusion: towards a normative theory of federalism and federation 224 9 The European Union as a federal model 226 Introduction 226 Monnet’s Europe and its political implications 228 History and theory 233 Is the bottle half-empty or half-full? 236 The Constitutional Treaty 240 Conclusion: a new federal model 245 PART III Lessons of experience 249 10 Federalism, democracy and the state in the era of globalisation 251 Introduction 251 Globalisation and global governance 252 Between integration and fragmentation 257 Federalism, confederalism and federation 263 Conclusion: confederal governance 267 11 The success and failure of federation 269 Introduction 269 Secession in federation 271 Conclusion 281 12 Conclusion: comparative federalism in theory and practice 283 Notes and references 290 Bibliography 324 Index 343 Acknowledgements This book has been a very long time in the making. It origins date back thirty years to my postgraduate days at the University of Leicester in the early 1970s when I first became interested in comparative federal studies. Since then, this interest has simmered steadily until it finally came to the boil in the mid-1980s when I began to look more closely at both the western European and Canadian versions of federalism and federation, a conceptual distinction originally made explicit by Preston King in his seminal work entitled Federalism and Federation, first published in 1982 by Croom Helm. My gradual acquaintance with comparative federal studies during those years at Leicester was due, respectively, to Professor Christopher Hughes and Professor Murray Forsyth, both of whom stimulated me enormously to pursue advanced research into the history, theory and practice of the federal idea in its various manifestations at different times and in different contexts. My subsequent univer- sity career advances from Plymouth to Keele to Hull and recently to Kent have each contributed something new to my own intellectual understanding and appreciation of this most fascinating of subjects. Today, however, it is to my colleagues and friends in the Comparative Federalism and Federation Research Committee of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) that I owe my greatest intellectual debt and gratitude for what is written in the pages of this book. I would like particularly to thank Franz Gress and Alain-G. Gagnon not only for their intellectual and educational insights in general but also for their invaluable friendship that I have never taken for granted. Chapter 7 derived from a joint paper that Franz Gress and myself presented at the IPSA Conference in August 2000 in Quebec City, Canada while Chapter 10 origi- nated in another paper that I presented in Montreal, Canada at the invitation of Jules Duchastel, Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM). I feel sure that the following colleagues will also not object to my mentioning their names here for they, too, have been far more influential in the evolution of my thinking on comparative federalism and federation than they will ever realise: Daniel J. Elazar, Ronald L. Watts, John Kincaid, Alan Cairns, David E. Smith, Luis Moreno, Patrick Peeters, Lloyd Brown-John, Rudolph Hrbek, Robert Agranoff, Frank Delmartino, Uwe Leonardy, and Nicholas Schmitt. I would also like to acknowledge the influential role of the Federal Trust and the significance of its xii Acknowledgements lively output on federalist literature, but I especially want to mention John Pinder, its current chairman, whose work on the United Kingdom and Europe I have always read and admired for its intellectual clarity, prescience and boldness, often in the face of much hostility in this country. None of these people, it hardly needs emphasising, bear any responsibility for what is written here. Indeed, many of them would probably take issue with much of what I have written. The sole responsibility for the content of the book remains my own. Finally I want to mention the fact that my current responsibility as the Director of the new Centre for Federal Studies (CFS) at the University of Kent at Canterbury (UoK) means that there is now, once again, a firm venue for post- graduate study and advanced research in this important subject in the United Kingdom. Thanks to UoK and the financial support of the James Madison Trust, it is possible for those interested in comparative federal studies to have an intellectual base where they can confidently pursue their research interests with the support and encouragement of staff involved with the CFS. Introduction The problem with
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