Part I. Local Democracy Development in Georgia (1991 – 2012) – Policy Analysis

ადგილობრივი დემოკრატიის დინამიკა: თვითმმართველობის რეფორმა The dynamics of local Democracy: Local Government reform რიდერი მომზადებულია მარინა მუსხელიშვილის მიერ Chapter 13 Federal, unitary and local government Federalism 228 the lowest level of authority within the state, local Federal–state relations 231 government, before examining the patterns of sub- Assessing federalism 235 national government found in new democracies Unitary government 236 and authoritarian regimes. Local government 239 Subnational government in new Definition democracies 244 Multilevel governance emerges when several Subnational government in authoritarian tiers of government share the task of regulating states 245 modern society. Expert networks form within Key reading 246 particular policy sectors, cutting across tiers and often extending to relevant interest groups. overning always has a territorial dimension. Multilevel governance inheres in a federation but GRulers need to extract resources from their the term is also used in discussing unitary states, territory while also retaining the willingness of the particularly in the context of the relationship population to remain within the state’s orbit. To between the European Union and its mainly achieve these ends, the modern state consists of an unitary members (Hooghe and Marks, 2001). intricate network of organizations, typically con- See also pluralism (p. 177). sisting of: the central government the central government’s offices in the provinces Federalism regional or provincial governments local authorities Federalism is a method for sharing sovereignty, the European Union (for member states). and not just power, between governments within a single state. It is a constitutional device, presup- Governance in all established democracies com- posing a formal political agreement establishing prises several levels with extensive flows of com- both the levels of government and their spheres munication, money and influence between them. of authority. So, like the constitutions within Multilevel governance is the term used to describe which they are embedded, federations are always how policy-makers and experts in particular a deliberate creation. The United States gave us sectors (e.g. transport, education) negotiate across the first modern constitution and, as part of levels, seeking to deliver coherent policy in their the settlement reflected in that document, it specific area. established the world’s first and most influential Clearly, the balance between these assorted tiers federation. raises important questions of democratic gover- In a federation, legal sovereignty is shared nance. Who initiates policy? Who funds it? Who between the federal (or national) government and executes it? Who is accountable for it? And, in the constituent states (or provinces). Neither level view of September 11, how well can such intricate can abolish the other. It is this protected position networks respond to national emergencies? of the states, not the extent of their powers, which In this chapter, we examine the two basic solu- distinguishes federations (such as the USA and tions to the territorial organization of power: Canada) from unitary governments (such as the federal and unitary government. We then turn to UK and France). Multiple levels of governance are 228 FEDERAL, UNITARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 229 integral to a federation whereas in a unitary system Definition sovereignty resides solely with the centre and lower Federalism is the principle of sharing sover- levels exist at its pleasure. eignty between central and state (or provincial) A federal constitution allocates specific functions governments; a federation is any political to each tier. The centre takes charge of external system that puts this idea into practice. A con- relations – defence, foreign affairs and immigra- federation is a looser link between participating tion – and some common domestic functions such countries which retain their separate statehood. as the currency. The functions of the states are A confederation does not create a new central more variable but typically include education, law government with a direct relationship to its citi- enforcement and local government. Residual zens (Lister, 1996). powers may also lie with the states, not the centre (see Box 13.1). The natural federal structure is for all the states In nearly all federations the states have a guaran- within the union to possess identical powers under teed voice in national policy-making through an the constitution. However, reflecting national cir- upper chamber of the assembly. In that chamber cumstances, some federations are less balanced. each state normally receives equal, or nearly equal, Asymmetric federalism arises when some states representation. The American Senate, with two within a federation are given more freedom than senators per state, is the prototype. In unitary others. In Canada, for example, Quebec national- states, by contrast, the rationale for an upper ists have long argued for special recognition for chamber is less clear. Indeed, most legislatures in their French-speaking province. Asymmetric feder- unitary states consist of only one chamber. alism is a natural response to differences in power BOX 13.1 The allocation of functions in the Canadian and German federations Type of allocation Canada Germany Exclusive jurisdiction (functions The national government The federal government’s allocated entirely to one level): exclusively controls 29 functions, responsibilities include defence, including criminal law, the citizenship, immigration and the currency and defence. internal market The provinces control ‘all matters No specific powers are explicitly of a merely local or private nature granted to the Länder but the in the province’,including local provinces implement federal laws ‘in government their own right’ Concurrent jurisdiction (functions Both the national and provincial Concurrent powers include criminal shared between levels): governments can pass laws dealing law and employment. A with agriculture and immigration constitutional amendment in 1969/70 created a new category of joint tasks, including regional economic policy and agriculture Residual powers (the level The national parliament can make Any task not otherwise allocated responsible for functions not laws for the ‘peace, order and good remains with the Länder specifically allocated by the government of Canada’ constitution): Source for Germany: Jeffery (2003) 230 GOVERNMENT AND POLICY and culture between regions within a federation. European country by population, exemplifies fed- However, the solution carries its own dangers. The eralism on that continent. risk is that a spiral of instability will develop as the In theory, there are two routes to a federation: less favoured states seek the privileges accorded to either by creating a new central authority or by more autonomous provinces. transferring sovereignty from an existing national Federations must be distinguished not just from government to lower levels. Stepan (2001, p. 32) unitary states but also from confederations. In the calls these methods ‘coming together’ and ‘holding latter, the central authority remains the junior together’. In practice, coming together predomi- partner; it is merely an agent of the component nates; federalism is almost always a compact states. The classic instance of a confederation is between previously separate units pursuing a the short-lived system adopted in 1781 in what is common interest. The United States, for instance, now the United States. The weak centre, emerged from a meeting of representatives of 13 embodied in the Continental Congress, could American states in 1787. Similar conventions, neither tax nor regulate commerce. It also lacked strongly influenced by the American experience, direct authority over the people. It was the feeble- took place in Switzerland in 1848, Canada in ness of the Articles of Confederation that led to 1867 and Australia in 1897/98. the drafting of a federal constitution, and to the So far, restructuring as a federation to hold a creation of the United States proper, in 1787. divided country together is a rare occurrence. Federalism is a recognized solution to the Belgium is the main example. First established in problem of organizing the territorial distribution 1830, Belgium has been beset by divisions between of power. Elazar (1996, p. 426) counts 22 federa- its French- and Dutch-speaking regions. tions in the world, containing some two billion Constitutional revisions in 1970 and 1980 people or 40 per cent of the world’s population devolved more power to these separate language (for some examples see Table 13.1). Federalism is groups. In 1983, Belgium finally proclaimed itself a particularly common in large countries, whether federation of three parts: French-speaking Wallonia, size is measured by area or by population. Four of Dutch-speaking Flanders and Brussels, the predom- the world’s largest states by area are federal: inantly French-speaking capital located in the Australia, Brazil, Canada and the United States. In Dutch-speaking part of the country (Arel, 2001). India, ten out of 25 provinces each contain more The Belgian experience does suggest that federation than 40 million people, providing the only real- can be an alternative to disintegration, a lesson of istic framework for holding together such a large value to other states confronting strong divisions of and diverse democracy. Germany, the largest ethnicity, language,

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