0010.1177/0032321717731660Political StudiesHe et al. research-article2017 Article 1 Political Studies 1 –18 2 The Covenant Connection © The Author(s) 2017 3 Reprints and permissions: Reexamined: The Nexus sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav 4 https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321717731660DOI: 10.1177/0032321717731660 5 between Religions and journals.sagepub.com/home/psx 6 7 Federalism in Asia 8 9 10 11 1 2 Baogang He , Laura Anne Allison 12 and Michael Breen2 13 14 15 16 Abstract 17 The covenant connection thesis forms an important basis from which to understand the religious 18 source of federalism. Yet with its Judeo-Christian roots, to what extent does it apply to Asian 19 countries that have different religious traditions? In this article, we explore whether the covenant 20 connection thesis is relevant to Asian federalism in the context of Muslim-, Hindu-, and Buddhist- 21 majority countries. We find that while the presence or absence of a covenantal tradition within a 22 religion can partially explain acceptance of, or resistance to, federalism, there are other religious features that also play a role. These include the extent to which traditional religious organizations 23 are internally centralized, the extent to which religion and state governance are intertwined or 24 separate from each other, and the extent to which a religion that constitutes the core national 25 identity is threatened by other religions that are or may be empowered by federal arrangements. 26 27 28 Keywords 29 comparative federalism, covenant connection, religious traditions, federalism in Asia, religious perspective on federalism 30 31 Accepted: 23 August 2017 32 33 34 35 Introduction 36 In Asia, the correlations between religions and federalism are puzzling and reveal some 37 striking patterns. Among secular states and societies with Confucian traditions, like 38 China, the two Koreas, Vietnam, and Singapore, none have federalism. No Buddhist- 39 majority country has federated, although Myanmar and Sri Lanka have quasi-federal sys- 40 tems. In contrast, both Hindu-majority countries (India and Nepal) have accepted 41 42 43 44 1Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia 2Public Policy and Global Affairs, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore 45 46 Corresponding author: 47 Baogang He, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia. Email: [email protected][AQ: 1] 48 2 Political Studies 00(0) 1 federalism as an appropriate means of accommodating diversity. Two Muslim-majority 2 countries—Malaysia and Pakistan—established federalism, although in a more central- 3 ized and authoritarian manner. Christian-majority countries with covenantal traditions, 4 like the Philippines, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea, have unitary political systems, 5 although Christianity has been a relatively recent import. 6 Why are there such differences among Buddhist-, Muslim-, and Hindu-majority coun- 7 tries with regard to federalism in Asia? Obviously there are many historical, geo-political, 8 economic, social, and cultural factors that contribute to these differences. In this article, 9 we focus on religious factors to account for these. We first revisit the covenant connection 10 thesis in the Western federalism scholarship. From a religious perspective, the idea of a 11 covenant encapsulates the idea that relationships between God and humans are under- 12 pinned by morally sustained mutual promises and obligations (Elazar, 2000). Politically, 13 a covenant refers to the process of creating communities and civil societies through com- 14 pacts and agreements to establish durable partnerships (Elazar, 2000). The covenant con- 15 nection’s core idea is that federalism is rooted in Judeo-Christian covenantal traditions 16 (see, for example, Elazar’s four volume study, The Covenant Tradition in Politics), 17 whereby covenantal partnerships create a situation in which “each partner can at least 18 recognize the justice of the other’s claims and then negotiate these claims through mutu- 19 ally agreeable structures designed to facilitate cooperative activity” (Elazar, 2000: 5). 20 Inspired by this simple but powerful intellectual explanation, we attempt to discover 21 whether the covenant connection thesis extends beyond Christianity in the context of 22 Asian federalism. We analyze how the presence or absence of a covenantal connection 23 within Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism affects the establishment and development of 24 federalism in Asia. Our finding is that the covenant connection thesis can partially explain 25 why federalism has taken root in Muslim-majority countries, and it helps elucidate why 26 federalism has not been established within Buddhist-majority countries, where there are 27 no covenantal traditions. However, the covenant connection thesis cannot explain why 28 Hinduism, which also has no covenantal tradition, has been associated with the develop- 29 ment of federalism in India and its emergence in Nepal. It cannot explain why Christian- 30 majority countries in Asia have unitary political systems. Clearly, there is a limit to the 31 covenant connection thesis even within Christianity. 32 We thus contend that the covenant connection thesis merely focuses on the ideational 33 and philosophical bases of federalism, and overlooks other aspects of religion that have 34 played various roles in influencing the development of federalism. We aim to broaden the 35 covenant connection thesis through identifying and examining several pertinent institu- 36 tional and social factors within religious traditions. They include the extent to which tra- 37 ditional religious organizations are internally centralized or centralized by state power, 38 the extent to which religion and state governance are intertwined or separate from each 39 other, and the extent to which a particular religion that constitutes the core national iden- 40 tity is perceived to be threatened by other religions that are or may be empowered by 41 federal arrangements. We therefore make and test the following hypotheses: 42 43 (1) A decentralized administrative structure of a religion creates a favorable condition 44 for federalism. Otherwise, an administratively centralized religion is more likely 45 to lend its support to a unitary system. 46 (2) Differentiation between a particular religion and a state or government creates a 47 favorable condition for federalism. In contrast, if a particular religion is closely 48 identified with a state or government, a federal polity is likely to be more He et al. 3 authoritarian and centralized. It does not, however, preclude the implementation of 1 federalism on its own. 2 (3) An actual or perceived threat to a particular religion that constitutes the core of a 3 national or ethnic identity creates an unfavorable condition for federalism. 4 5 A religious national identity alone will not affect the issue of whether federalism can 6 be introduced or not. Only when there are concerns about the status of the religion upon 7 which a national identity is based—that is, when a particular religion faces a critical chal- 8 lenge from other religions in domestic and international societies, or when there is a 9 perceived threat to the status of the religion in the region that may be heightened by fed- 10 eralism—will a state unify and use political force to defend the domination of its majority 11 religion. In these circumstances, a state would tend toward centralization. 12 The article has three aims. The first aim is to test the application of the covenant con- 13 nection thesis to federalism in Asia. The second aim is to further develop the covenant 14 connection thesis through examining other religious factors that contribute to the success 15 and failure of the establishment and development of federalism in Asia. In doing so, the 16 third aim is to make a valuable contribution to the literature on religious perspectives on 17 federalism through a comparative study of Asia, and in particular an in-depth analysis of 18 the impacts of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism on federalism in Asia. 19 We adopt a comparative method. First, we select and focus on three religions, namely, 20 Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, to test the covenant connection hypothesis. We do not 21 consider Confucianism (He, 2010), which may be better considered as secular, or 22 Christianity, due to the limits of space and because it has been covered extensively in the 23 literature (Elazar, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999; Kincaid and Elazar, 1985; McCoy and Baker, 24 1991). Second, we select Malaysia and Pakistan from Islam, India and Nepal from 25 Hinduism, and Sri Lanka and Myanmar from Buddhism, and develop a pair analysis of 26 two countries in each religious tradition. Third, we examine institutional and social fac- 27 tors within the three religions that are important to understand the implementation of, or 28 challenges to, federalism in Asia. While identifying and considering divisions and varia- 29 tions both within and across religious traditions, we focus on those that are most prevalent 30 in our case countries. 31 We should make clear in the beginning that while this article focuses on various reli- 32 gious factors that influence the politics of federalism, there are many other non-religious 33 factors that have influenced all developments of federalism. Throughout the article, we 34 note the role of colonialism, race politics, political institutions, democratization (He, 35 2007), political will, and others. 36 Following the conventional definition,