The Challenges of Federalism

Abstract

Federal political systems generally involve complex relationships between two or more levels of governments, which can lead to tensions that require mechanisms for resolving them. Though many of these tensions are administrative, at their extreme they challenge the very foundation of the federation itself through constitutional change or even secession. This panel aims to promote critical debate on issues related to the functioning of federalism by encouraging submissions from both theoretical and empirical perspectives coming from a range of disciplines including political philosophy, law, political science, and international relations. Empirical and theoretical work, including case studies, is welcome that answers questions such as the following: • Under what conditions does federalism promote justice, democracy, freedom, and or security/peace? • What are the possibilities (and limits) of federalism promoting minority rights and self-determination of peoples? • What must federal systems promote to perform well? • What factors make federalist states work (or not)? • How and why do power relations within federal systems change? • Under what circumstances are federal systems preferable to unitary systems (or vice versa)? Submissions can relate to topics such as asymmetrical federalism, fiscal federalism, distribution of competences, multilevel governance, centralization versus decentralization, or theories of secession. Applicants should not limit themselves to these topics, which are just suggestions. All papers on topics related to empirical and theoretical challenges for federalism generally or applied to specific cases are welcome. It should be noted that this panel is being put forward by the online graduate journal Federal Governance (www.federalgovernance.ca). We welcome submissions from the conference for Federal Governance, vol 11, no. 2 due to be out in late 2014.

Title	Details
Intergovernmental Relations in the Peruvian Decentralised State	View Paper Details
Asymmetrical Federalism or Independence: Time to Choose?	View Paper Details
Committed to Cooperation? Intergovernmental Relations as a Federal Safeguard	View Paper Details
Federalism as Efficient Justice	View Paper Details