Models of federalism in Switzerland and Germany: a comparative analysis

The article is the first to structure the concept of “model of federalism”. According to the author, it includes such essential elements as the initial factors that influenced the formation of the state, the stages of its development and the essential components of the model, namely, historical-typological and genesis ones features of federalism and the vector of development. Based on the use of historical and state literature, constitutional and legal materials, and the results of a recently published international political science project, the author examines the models of federalism of neighboring countries-Switzerland and Germany, formed in the middle of the XIX century, proposes its graphic description. These states vary in territorial extent and state dynamics, but are still similar at the initial stages of the formation of a federal model, namely the transition to a federal form from a confederal one. Also, the Swiss and German models were radically different from the point of view of their essence and their genesis, but they had a uniform centripetal vector, which in modern globalization conditions is characterized by a strengthening of the management center and a decrease in the autonomy of the subjects.

How Federations Responded to Covid-19

Countries with a federal form of government responded in distinctive ways to the health and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Constitutional INSIGHTS No.7 explores what can be learned from this experience about the purposes, design and operation of federations, including for the division and allocation of powers and fiscal resources; collaboration and cooperation between levels of government; and the challenges of democratic accountability. It builds on an earlier brief on Implementing Federalism (Constitutional INSIGHTS No.2) that examines some of these issues in a non-Covid context.

Federalism and Policy Implementation

Implementing public policies in federations involves clashes of concept and practice. In its design, federalism is not particularly conducive to the formulation and implementation of public policy because the acclaimed strengths of a federal form of government, including diversity, fragmentation of power and sovereignty, and responsiveness to regional and cultural interests, all serve to make the introduction of national policies complex and challenging. This is especially the case regarding the implementation phase of policies which tends to be a most difficult task given the layers and negotiating steps through which policies must pass before being delivered to clients. Success in implementing public policies in federations requires a mixture of strategies that can range from coercion to collaboration and cooperation. Achieving performance with accountability throughout this process has proven difficult in most federations. Moreover most of the literature has avoided the client perspective, in particular whether citizens really care about the vagaries of federal arrangements as they simply want to see the programs that affect their daily lives delivered efficiently, effectively, and accountably.

Różnorodność i zmienność instytucji samorządu terytorialnego w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki

The diversity and variability of the forms of local government in the United States is a function of the federal form of the state and the broad powers of state authorities towards their administrative units, but also flexible legal solutions that enable citizens to influence the form of local government and their pragmatic attitude towards institutional solutions. The types of units of local government in the United States were described. Particular attention was paid to municipal corporations and their institutional forms, which exemplify the paper’s topic.

Federalism to Centralism in Mexico: The Conservative Case for Change, 1834-1835

In the summer of 1835 Mexico chose to abandon the federal form of government instituted a decade earlier in 1824 and to replace it with a centralized republic. The dismantling of federal laws and institutions and the enactment of those designed to replace them occupied the next eighteen months until on December 30, 1836 the process of change to the new system culminated in the publication of a new constitution, the so-called Constitutión de las Siete Leyes. This fundamental change in the political structure of the nation was not achieved without considerable dissent and the protracted transitional period permitted many groups who opposed the new order of things to air their views and in some cases, notably in Zacatecas and Texas, to attempt military resistance. The supporters of centralism found themselves, therefore, obliged to make and justify their case for change and to convince themselves as well as their opponents that their proposals represented the popular will. It is with this centralist case for change, or manifesto, that this article is primarily concerned.

Education and National Integration in Nigeria

The new nations of the world hold many expectations for their education systems. They expect that schools will produce the labour force for their manpower requirements, the leadership for their bureaucracies, and the citizenry for an enlightened social order. In pluralistic countries, governments expect also that schools will assist in integrating sub-populations fragmented by religious, linguistic, or ethnic differences. This article will examine the theme, ‘education and national integration’, in Nigeria, whose federal form of government was erected in recognition of profound cultural disparities.

Dominion Disallowance of Provincial Legislation in Canada

Although there is a federal form of government in both the Dominion of Canada and the United States, there are striking differences in the two types of federalism. Some of these differences are to be found in fundamentals, such as the basis upon which the powers of government are divided in the two countries. Less striking, but nevertheless significant, are still other points of variance. Among these is the power which the dominion government has to disallow legislative acts of the provinces. Just why the fathers of the Canadian federation thought this power should be given to the central government is not clear. The fact remains, however, that in the years from 1867 to 1935, at least 114 provincial acts and territorial ordinances were set aside. It is important to note that these acts were disallowed by executive officers of the dominion government. Executive officers of the national government in the United States do not possess similar powers where state legislation is concerned.