The paper makes a concrete proposal for a dialogue between EU studies and comparative federalism. Both types of multilevel systems face the same dilemma: Effective problem-solving requires system-wide policies whereas the preservation of the autonomy of constituent units requires decentralized policy-making. Dividing the allocation of powers between levels of government neatly as is often recommended in the literature has proved impossible to sustain empirically. Instead, both the EU and federal states cope with this dilemma by shared policy-making of centre and constituent units. The literature also suggests that although the ‘federal balance’ between system-wide and decentralized policy-making is pre-structured on the system level (e.g. by constitutional provisions), its specific patterns emerge and evolve in concrete micro-processes of shared policy-making below the system level. These patterns remain however largely unexplored empirically and conceptually.
For furthering comparisons between the EU and federal states, the paper introduces two variables – ‘exit’ and ‘voice’. ‘Exit’ specifies the extent to which constituent units are subject to system-wide policies, while ‘voice’ describes the extent of their influence on system-wide policies. Shared policy-making enables federal systems to differentiate with a view to both variables. This results in varying degrees of autonomy for the constituent units. Furthermore, the paper seeks to explain this variation with two hypotheses. The first assumes that the extent to which constituent units that oppose a policy substantively will receive room for manoeuvre through exit options depends on the degree to which they are indispensable for effective system-wide policies. The second hypothesis claims that the degree to which constituent units influence decision-making on system-wide policies depends on the importance of the ‘federal diversity’ norm to the actors. The concepts and hypotheses introduced will be illustrated by examples from educational policy, internal security and social policy in the Canada, the EU, the US and Switzerland.
