Week 2 - Conceptualizing Federalism

Federalism

• Federalism addresses levels of government: national, regional, and (possibly) local/municipal

  • Federalism encompasses national (federal) and regional (provincial) governments, grounded in rights based on constitutional status

• Asking: how many are there, and what is the status and influence of each?

• This set of questions determines whether the system is unitary, federal, or confederal

Unitarism

• Unitary states

  • Sovereign authority is held by the central government.

  • The center exercises power across the state and directly affects citizens’ lives in many areas.

  • Regional or local governments may exist, but they:

    • Are not constitutionally guaranteed.

    • Do not share the state’s sovereignty.

    • May be changed or have their powers removed by the central government.

  • A constitution can guarantee a government’s existence and define its powers.

  • Example: Italy has regional governments, but they are not sovereign.

  • Sovereignty means having constitutionally recognized authority and the ability to resist the central government’s attempts to remove powers.

  • Federalism differs because it constitutionally recognizes multiple levels of government as sharing sovereignty.

  • Sovereign authority is a central part of the political order, organizing the other parts

Sources of Unitarism

• Unitary states are the product of a long process of development:

  • Earlier state forms tended to emphasize social composition (who rules?) and rule of law

Sources of Unitarism - Aristotle

• Aristotle: Define a political order by who rules - the composition or number of its leaders.

  • Monarchy: One person rules.

  • Aristocracy: A few people rule, ideally for the common good.

  • Oligarchy: A few people rule for their own benefit.

  • Democracy: The many rule.

Sources of Unitarism - Bodin and Hobbes

• Bodin and Hobbes developed the idea of sovereignty: the ultimate authority within a defined territory.

• Sovereignty means having the final authority to make and enforce decisions within a territory.

• Hobbes’s view:

  • Without a strong government, people face insecurity and conflict.

  • People have a right to protect themselves, but may give up some freedom to a sovereign authority—the Leviathan.

  • In return, the sovereign provides protection and security.

• Purpose of a strong sovereign: to prevent civil, religious, and other conflicts and create secure conditions

Sources of Unitarism - The Protestant Reformation

• The Protestant Reformation

  • Challenged the religious uniformity of Western Europe.

  • Reformers objected to corruption in the Church, including the sale of indulgences.

  • They sought changes to the Church’s hierarchy and challenged rigid interpretations imposed on people.

  • The formation of Protestant churches contributed to widespread religious conflict

Sources of Unitarism - The Westphalian State System

• Reformation and war: Religious division and attempts to impose faith led to conflict and casualties across Europe.

• State-building: War and defence encouraged states to centralize authority, organize resources, strengthen territorial sovereignty, and expand state capacity. Westphalia reinforced the idea that each state held authority within its territory.

• The Westphalian state system

  • The settlements associated with the Peace of Westphalia are often understood as reinforcing territorial sovereignty and the authority of rulers within their territories.

  • In this account, states increasingly shaped political behaviour, while religious authorities’ ability to impose a single faith across borders was constrained.

• Nationalism: States cultivated shared national identities to legitimize their rule and unify increasingly homogeneous populations. This unity helped mobilize people in support of state goals

Key Alternative (in relation to unitarism): Confederalism and Confederal States

• Confederalism: Sovereign states join to pursue shared goals, such as security or economic benefits. They pool some authority so a common government can perform agreed tasks—but the center does not become sovereign.

  • Confederal state: regional governments are sovereign entities in themselves, sovereign states will come together after an event (ex. Soviet Union)

• How it works: The common government is kept on a tight leash by these states - the states remain sovereign, act as the central decision-makers, and implement the resultant decisions

  • Once the centre has accepted it, they will implement the accepted decisions

• Comparison: In a unitary state, regional governments derive their powers from the center and can be changed or abolished by it. The EU has some confederal features because sovereign members pool authority through shared institutions. The basic logic is confederal, but the EU is more complex than this

  • Lacking sovereignty, the common government tends to influence citizens indirectly, through the member states

  • Member states rule over their populations, comes through member states rather than separately

Sources of Confederalism

• Confederal arrangements were once the main alternative to unitary states:

  • They grew out of medieval and post-medieval ways of organizing power, before modern states developed.

  • After the Roman Empire fell, power was fragmented. Lords and vassals formed complex personal networks.

  • These relationships could cross borders and involved unequal but mutual exchanges between people, including lords and peasants.

  • The relationships had no fixed pattern or central structure; they were loosely organized.

Sources of Confederalism - The Holy Roman Empire

• The Holy Roman Empire’s power was limited by the papacy, growing territorial kingdoms, aristocrats, and townspeople.

• Althusius’s ideas could develop because there was an overarching authority, but little coordination among the different groups.

• This was the setting in which confederal ideas emerged

Sources of Confederalism - John Loughlin

• John Loughlin: “there was no single, uniform model of political organization but a great variety of forms. It was also a system of overlapping orders of law… and jurisdiction. Individuals living on the same territory might be subject to ecclesiastic law, feudal arrangements, imperial law, etc.”

  • Different authorities—such as the Church, the Holy Roman Empire, and local governments—had overlapping laws and powers.

  • There was no single governing structure or clear document explaining which rules applied in each situation.

  • This left room for people to imagine several layers of authority and jurisdiction working together.

What is Federalism in this Context? Althusius

• Althusius’s contribution: He helped lay the groundwork for federal theory by emphasizing cooperation among self-governing communities rather than rule through a single vertical hierarchy.

• Consociation: Social harmony can grow through communities engaging with one another and governing themselves.

• Subsidiarity: Decisions should be made at the lowest level capable of addressing them; higher authorities should step in only when necessary.

• Collective decision-making: Common authority should arise from decisions made through councils and other representative bodies at lower levels.

• Multiple levels of government: Local and regional bodies can have representation and meaningful roles in political processes, including forming parties and proposing legislative changes.

• A check on centralized power: Distributing authority across levels helps guard against excessive concentration of power at the center.

• Modern connection: Subsidiarity is an important principle in the European Union, reflected in its treaties.

The Shift to Federalism

• The modern state weakened confederalism.

  • Political science came to focus on the state as unified, centralized, and sovereign.

  • This made federalism seem like an alternative to strong central rule.

• The American experience showed confederalism’s limits.

  • Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government was too weak to address shared challenges.

  • In the 1780s, the founders adopted a federal Constitution to create an effective common government while preserving state authority.

• Federalism offered a middle ground: shared government without giving up all local or regional independence.

Federalism according to Daniel Elezar:

• ‘Federalism has to do with the need of people and politics to unite for common purposes yet remain separate to preserve their respective integrities’

  • Without sacrificing the things that make them distinct and worthy of self government

• Federalism combines unity with independence.

  • People and political units cooperate for common goals while preserving what makes them distinct.

• It balances two kinds of power:

  • Self-rule: states or provinces govern their own affairs.

  • Shared rule: they work together through a common government.

• The constitution divides authority between federal and state governments; neither level is simply subordinate to the other.

• The balance requires negotiation: self-rule cannot prevent necessary common action, and shared rule must respect local differences.

• Federalism aims for unity without uniformity, accommodating diversity within one political system

Federalism according to Ronald Watts

• Federalism combines shared rule with self-rule: A common government handles specified shared purposes, while constituent units govern their own affairs and preserve their identities.

• Authority is constitutionally divided: Federal and provincial governments have separate jurisdictions and independent bases of authority. Neither can simply revoke the other’s powers within its constitutional sphere.

• Each level governs citizens directly: Both have their own institutions, electorates, and decision-making processes—not merely representatives appointed by the other level. Citizens may participate in elections at both levels.

• Federal representation involves a tension: Institutions must balance regional equality—protecting constituent units and their self-government—with citizen equality, which generally favors representation according to population.

Federalism according to William Riker

Shared sovereignty: “a political organization in which the activities of government are divided between regional governments and a central government in such a way that each kind of government has some activities on which it makes final decisions.” 

• Shared sovereignty means government responsibilities are divided between regional and central governments.

• Each level has final decision-making authority over the powers assigned to it.

Features Associated with Federalism

• Two or more levels of government, each dealing directly with citizens

• A constitution that divides authority, responsibilities, and revenue

• Regional representation in federal bodies, often through a second chamber

  • Federal systems usually have a two-chamber assembly.

• A written constitution that neither level of government can change alone

  • It divides responsibilities, and neither level can change that division by itself.

• A supreme or constitutional court to interpret the constitution

  • The court resolves disputes about what the constitution means.

• Support for cooperation between governments on shared responsibilities

* start of readings

Hueglin and Fenna - History of Federalism (17th century)

• What made power dispersal a matter of survival?

• The Reformation shattered the shared Christian ideology that had helped hold Europe’s decentralized authorities together.

• Kings used the resulting crisis to strengthen their power:

  • They claimed authority over both their territory and their subjects’ religion.

  • The 1555 Peace of Augsburg formalized the principle that rulers chose their lands’ religion.

  • People with a different faith could be treated as enemies, contributing to religious persecution and massacres.

• Challenging a king was difficult because kings claimed to rule by God’s authority. Opponents needed a strong moral and political case for resistance.

• Some persecuted groups argued that rulers were bound by a sacred covenant with God and the people:

  • The people had a duty to uphold the covenant.

  • A king who persecuted them broke the pact, giving them a religious reason to resist.

• Calvinist thinker Johannes Althusius developed these ideas in his 1603 book Politica Methodice Digesta. He also confronted a local ruler’s attempt to control a German port city and raise its taxes

Politica Methodice Digesta (3)

• Entire philosophy rested on:

• 1) Consociation (self-governing communities):

  • Society is built from communities that join together: families, guilds, cities, provinces, and ultimately a commonwealth.

  • These communities—not just individual voters—are the foundation of political power. Leaders are chosen through this layered structure, from the local level upward.

  • Higher-level leaders should not make decisions that undermine the communities below them.

• 2) Communication (sharing and cooperation):

  • Communities share goods, services, and laws.

  • They take part in creating the common rules that govern the commonwealth.

• 3) Consensus (agreement):

  • Communities should agree on shared decisions.

  • A community should be able to reject decisions that directly affect it, preventing the majority or central authority from overriding it.

• The central tension:

  • These principles aimed to protect communities from a powerful central ruler.

  • By the 18th century, American colonists faced a different concern: they feared that their common government was too weak

18th Century - Republican Federalism

• Following the war of Independence, the 13 colonies were loosely bound by the Articles of Confederation

• Alexander Hamilton: ‘An imbecility’

  • The central government could not efficiently collect taxes, states were fighting trade wars, drowning in debt

  • Needed a real government to manage commerce, military security, etc.

  • Americans were trapped by their own fears - scared of replacing a British King with a tyrant threatening their wealth and property rights

• Franklin research on Indigenous structure in NA

  • Six Nations of Iroquois: maintained a union based on deep consensus

  • Ultimately rejected this model and the Althusius model because of unanimous consensus (it is slow and not efficient)

• Theoretical Framework derived from Montesquieu, a French aristocrat writing before the Revolution

Montesquieu

• Pluralism and limits on power:

  • A healthy society has diverse communities and institutions.

  • Intermediate groups between individuals and the central government can help prevent despotism.

  • Montesquieu argued that power should be divided among legislative, executive, and judicial branches so each can check the others.

  • He also supported a federal republic: states could unite for common defense while retaining local government to protect liberty.

• From theory to practice:

  • These ideas influenced the U.S. Constitution, drafted at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787.

  • Hamilton and Madison defended the new system in The Federalist Papers.

• Balancing large and small states:

  • Large states wanted representation based on population; small states wanted equal representation.

  • The compromise created a two-chamber Congress:

    • House of Representatives: represents people, with seats based on population.

    • Senate: represents states equally.

• A stronger federal government:

  • The federal government could tax, regulate, and enforce laws directly on citizens, without needing state permission.

  • Anti-Federalists feared this would threaten state power and individual liberty. Madison argued that dividing power between federal and state governments, and among the federal branches, would help control that risk.

James Madison - Double Security

• The American system offered a unique safeguard

• Liberty is not just protected by separating power horizontally across the judicial, legislative and executive branch within the government, powers is also separated vertically between the federal and state governments 

  • The state and federal government will monitor control each other, while the internal branches of each government will check themselves - power checks power

• Who acts as the referee: Hamilton provides the answer with judicial efficacy

• Supreme Court must serve as the ultimate umpire, with the ability to declare any law void if it goes against the constitution

  • Moving away from treaty federalism (relying on mutual consensus) and entering an era of American constitutionalism

  • Rights and boundaries are now protected by the judicial interpretation of a supreme written document

19th Century - Centralization of Economic Power and the French Revolution

• The challenge: The French Revolution strengthened centralized nation-states, while the Industrial Revolution concentrated economic wealth and power in the hands of a few. Socioeconomic federalists saw both trends as threats to freedom.

• Marx and Proudhon: Marx argued that capitalist monopolies should be countered by an egalitarian state organized through democratic centralism. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon rejected both concentrated capitalist power and centralized state control, arguing that political decentralization means little if people remain economically dependent.

• Proudhon’s proposal — the agro-industrial federation: Rather than federating geographic territories, society would federate production and consumption. People would participate through councils representing what they do and produce, not simply where they live.

• A system of ascending councils: Workers and farmers would elect local councils, which would send delegates to regional councils, and then to a national council.

• A limited national role: The national council would focus mainly on foreign policy and gathering broad economic information. Local, self-governing groups would use that information to make their own decisions.

• Core principle: Political freedom requires a measure of economic independence; decentralizing government alone is not enough 

19th Century - Centralization of Economic Power and the French Revolution (Rejection of this idea)

• Why integral federalism was marginalized: Capitalists opposed it because it challenged monopolies; socialists opposed it because it rejected a powerful centralized state.

• Alexander Marc and integral federalism: In 1930s Paris, intellectuals led by Alexander Marc revived the idea. Alarmed by totalitarianism and the devastation of World War II, they saw Europe’s survival depending on political and economic integration built from self-governing communities.

• Personalism: Individual freedom, in this view, does not flourish in isolation. It depends on strong local communities that support and protect people.

• Postwar influence: Although war initially interrupted the movement, integral federalist ideas later influenced European integration. EU architects drew on its principles; Jacques Delors, for example, was closely connected to personalist circles.

• Ideas reflected in EU institutions and practice:

  • The Economic and Social Committee consults producer and consumer groups on legislation, reflecting proposals for organized representation.

  • Subsidiarity holds that decisions should be made at the lowest level able to address them effectively.

  • Treaty changes require unanimous agreement from member states, echoing the importance of consensus among political communities.

• The broader point: Federalism is an evolving way to balance competing needs—especially collective security and individual freedom.

Watts reading - The word ‘Federalism’

• Federalism

  • A political philosophy that combines shared rule with self-government.

  • The North American tradition emphasizes practical cooperation while preserving local autonomy.

  • The European tradition emphasizes subsidiarity: decisions should be made at the lowest level capable of handling them effectively.

• Federal political systems

  • A broad category for political arrangements that combine shared rule and self-rule.

  • Includes different kinds of unions and other political structures.

• Federation

  • A specific type of federal system in which both the central government and constituent units—such as states or provinces—derive authority from citizens.

  • Both levels exercise their powers directly through laws and institutions.

• Building a federation

  • Identify which shared purposes require central action and which responsibilities should remain local.

  • Set out each level’s powers in a supreme constitution that neither can change unilaterally.

  • Give both levels direct authority and institutions for governing citizens.

  • Ensure constituent units are represented in central decision-making.

  • Establish an independent body, such as a constitutional court, to resolve disputes.

  • Create procedures for cooperation and constitutional amendment as needs change.

• Overall goal

  • Make shared rule and self-government durable parts of the same constitutional system.

Foundation of Federalism Relies on ‘Non-Centralization’

• Decentralization: states have autonomy, but the central government ultimately owns the power and ‘loans it out’

• In a true federation, it is actually non-centralized

  • Dispersion of power is entrenched in the constitution, states possess power by right

  • They are autonomous actors with constitutionally protected domains

• How do you handle situations where one state demands special treatment than others?

• Constitutional asymmetry: not all states or regions have to be equal

  • This could breed massive resentment

  • How does this not tear the country apart?

• Sometimes, this asymmetry is the only safety valve to prevent total collapse

Russian Federation in 1990s

• 89 republics and regions

• After the fall of the USSR, the central government in Moscow was weak, and certain republics with different ethnic majorities, languages, resources, demanded de-centralization

  • The threat of them walking away was very real

  • If Moscow gave the same basic powers to one state as the next, they would declare independence

• Negotiated bilateral treaties

  • Gave the specific high risk republics asymmetrical powers, more cultural autonomy and control over their resources - to keep them in

  • A survival tactic 

• Spain, Belgium have used similar transactional tactics as transitional tools, letting different regions develop at different speeds

• Daniel Elezar: Federacies

  •  A small island is tied to a state

  • Island keeps total internal self government, but gets the defence and economic benefits of the larger state

Financial Realities and the Emergence of Confederal Arrangements

• Vertical fiscal imbalance in federations

  • The central government often has the strongest ability to raise revenue, while local governments pay for services such as roads, schools, and hospitals.

  • This gap is difficult to eliminate because economies and public needs change over time.

  • Federations manage the imbalance through ongoing transfers, such as equalization payments and bailouts. This makes federalism a continuing financial negotiation.

• Glocalization

  • People benefit from global markets, travel, and inexpensive goods.

  • They also want local services, culture, and values to be protected.

  • Balancing these global and local expectations puts pressure on nation-states.

• Why confederal arrangements are gaining attention

  • In a federation, citizens can vote directly for representatives in the central government.

  • In a confederation, shared institutions depend on constituent governments. Citizens elect local leaders, who then influence or represent them in central decision-making

EU - Revival of Confederal Model

• Electing a national government, which sends a bureaucrat or representative to Brussels

  • Citizens disconnected from decision making

• EU: massive confederation containing federations within

• Multi tiered system, large federations operating within a larger EU confederation

• Ex. town in Germany

  • Local state government, above that is federal government in Berlin, above that is confederal government in EU

  • Wants to subsidize local agriculture to protect its culture, but the EU has a strict common agriculture policy

  • Cannot just call Brussels, they must lobby Berlin, Berlin must negotiate with Brussels, Brussels issues a directive that cracks down on the town

• The act of surviving in a globalized world requires intense negotiation

• Internal friction must be immense, what happens when they step on each other's toes?

Germany Joint Decision Trap

• Overlapping powers require intergovernmental coordination

• When you are in a situation where you are legally forced to come to coordinate and achieve consensus on every policy, you create a pathology

  • With everyone having a veto power, nothing ever happens

• Requirement for joint decisions kills flexibility and policy innovation

Albert Breton - ‘competition serves the citizens better than cooperation’

• Cooperative vs competitive federalism

  • We always argue that cooperation between governments is a good thing, but

• If local states must actively compete with one another, to attract businesses and residents (offering better tax systems, etc.) they are forced to innovate to stand out 

• Locking arms with the federal government and standardizing everything, citizen loses benefit of competitive innovation

Multiethnic Federations

• Homogenous federations (US, Germany) have an easier time operating

• But multiethnic federations requires strong mechanical balance (Malaysia, Canada, Nigeria)

• Federations do not solve these conflicts, they manage them

  • Survival by managing safety valves into the system

• In a federation, if they are blocked at the national level, they pivot to their local governments to discuss their specific interests

  • Frustration finds a legal outlet, problem is not solved, but it is relieved 

• Surviving requires decoupling the notion of ‘nation’ from the notion of ‘citizenship’

  • You can fully exist as a nation without a seat at the UN

  • This means a person in QC can hold a passport, pay federal taxes for a unified military, benefit from economy are their political citizenship

  • Their schools, civil legal code and cultural life are entirely Quebecois - federal system gives them autonomy to protect their nation while also protecting their national citizenship

• Why federations fail sometimes: cumulative cleavages

  • How differences intersect, if societal differences cross cut each other (no single group is totally isolated, they have overlapping loyalties) the country holds together, but if this is not the case, the fault lines stack on top of each other (us vs them)

  • Ex. of people of different religions spoke multiple languages, wealthy people were equally spread out over the country, etc. - all overlapping categories

  • Tolerance evaporates, political debates become threats to identity

  • What we saw in the break up of Yugoslavia

Non-Territorial Federal Arrangements

• Organizing power share around community or identity regardless of physical location

• Belgium: cultural communities have institutional rights overlapping geographic boundaries

• Canada: autonomy for Indigenous peoples across the country rather than concentrated in geographic reserves

• Federations across digital or cultural networks?