Chapter 14 - Institutional Veto Players

• A bicameral state is one in which legislative decisions are made by two separate bodies. Originally intended to represent distinct socioeconomic classes, bicameral legislatures are today more strongly connected with the representation of diverse geographical divisions.
• Comparative academics are increasingly realizing that institutions such as federalism, bicameralism, and constitutionalism are fundamentally the same, rather than seeing the world in terms of institutional dichotomies. In fact, all three of these institutions function as checks and balances, impacting the ease with which the political status quo may be changed. The veto player theory is a new way of thinking about political institutions.

Federalism

• Political scientists may differentiate states based on whether they are federal or unitary. However, as Bednar (2009) points out, there is a significant lot of ambiguity and disagreement regarding what constitutes a state-federal. In the current literature, there are numerous somewhat ambiguous definitions of federalism.
• To a great part, the cause of this ambiguity may be traced back to whether one believes that in order to be regarded really federal, a country must be both federal in structure and federal in practice. For our part, we feel that maintaining a conceptual difference between de jure and de facto federalism is beneficial.

Federalism: Federalism in Structure

• Depending on the country, the regional entities in a federal polity are known by different names. In Australia, the United States, and Venezuela, they are known as states; in Canada, they are known as provinces; in Germany and Austria, they are known as Länder; in Switzerland, they are known as cantons; and in Belgium, they are known as regions.

• A federal dictatorship is exemplified by the United Arab Emirates. In the Middle East, the UAE consists of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The seven emirates are depicted on Map 15.1.

  

• The UAE's interim constitution, which was finally made permanent in 1996, established a federal government system (Peck 2001). In each of the seven emirates, this included establishing federal authority atop the pre-existing municipal administrations. Articles 116 and 122 of the constitution ensure the UAE's federal nature.

• Brazil is an example of federal democracy, whereas the United Arab Emirates is an example of a federal dictatorship. Federalism has a lengthy history in Brazil, dating back to the Old Republic's (1889–1930) constitution of 1891. The current federal structure dates from the 1988 constitution, which was created after the country's democratic transition from military rule in 1985.

• Brazil's federal government is guaranteed by Article 1 of the constitution, which says that the country is made up of "the indissoluble union of the states and municipalities, as well as the federal district."

15.2

• Although all of the states in Table 15.1 may be classified as federal, there is a lot of variety in how federalism is implemented in these nations. Political scientists typically emphasize on whether a federal system is (a) congruent or incongruent, and (b) symmetric or asymmetric when differentiating between different kinds of federalism.

15.1

• Only twenty-four nations met all three structural criteria for federalism in the 1990s, but numerous others, including Comoros, India, Italy, Spain, Sudan, St. Kitts and Nevis, Tanzania, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom, met two of them.
• Despite the fact that the United Kingdom has always had a strong central authority, things have lately begun to shift. In 1999, elections were conducted for a Scottish parliament and a Welsh senate, after successful referendums on the formation of regional parliaments in 1997. A provincial legislature was formed in Northern Ireland in 1999, in line with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
• Many of India's features are similar to those of a federal state. It has two tiers of government, for example, national and state. Twenty-eight states now have their own municipal governments.