The West German Federal Constitutional Court as Guardian of the Federal System

The West German Federal Constitutional Court has generally actedas a guardian of the German federal system. The Court has preventedattempts by the federation to encroach upon the modest autonomyleft to the Länder. If a national solution for a problemseems indispensable, the Court favors techniques that compensatethe Länder for a loss of autonomy by granting them certainparticipation rights. Guided by that principle, the Court'sconstruction of the Basic Law has increased considerably thenumber of federal statutes that require the approval of theBunesrat. Thus the Court emphasizes today the idea of partnership.However, in a 1986 decision, the Court made clear that a certainamount of federal leadership is needed to keep the system running.In this decision, the Court reminded the federation expresslyof its responsibility for the whole.     

The Foreign and European Policy of the German Lander

Although the German federal government is responsible underthe Basic Law for foreign affairs, the Länder may, undercertain circumstances, conclude treaties with the consent ofthe federation. The Länder have also become involved directlyand indirectly in other international activities. European integration,especially through the European Communities (EC), presents theLänder with new challenges. The Länder have soughtmeans to influence the federal government and the EC Commissionand Council of Ministers, in order to protect their sphere ofautonomous decisionmaking, but EC procedures and the realitiesof federal government involvement do not place the Länderin a strong negotiating position.     

Searching for a Cyprus Settlement: Considering Options for Creating a Federation, a Confederation, or Two Independent States

Greek and Turkish Cypriote have had a poor record in managingtheir political differences. The bicommunal government establishedat independence in 1960 at the behest of Greece and Turkey proveda failure after three years. Its collapse triggered communalviolence. No Cypriot government has represented both communitiessince then, and the partition on the island has hardened. Considerablethird-party mediation, spanning a few decades, has failed tofind a compromise settlement. Neither a federation nor a confederationappears to have reasonable prospects of success in view of thedeep mistrust between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Moreover,it is doubtful whether European Union membership of Cyprus couldprovide a sufficient framework for resolving the island's enduringcommunal dispute. Consequently, the merits of a two-state solutiondeserve serious consideration.     

Financing the German Federal System in the 1980s

Public finance is a crucial issue in any federation. In thesystem of shared public financing in Germany, no unit of governmentis fiscally dependent on the other. The federal and Land governmentsshare the personal income tax, the corporation tax, and thevalue-added sales tax. Because the Bundesrat approves of theshares of these tax yields granted the federal and Land governments,the Länder are deeply involved in the public finance system.Fiscal equalization occurs both vertically and horizontally.The federal government provides the Länder with grants-in-aid,and also shares the financing of a number of "joint tasks."The Länder share their tax yields with their local governments.Fiscal transfers also take place among the richer and poorerLänder and among the municipalities within the boundariesof individual counties. Controversy exists over the shares tobe given the respective governments from the value-added taxand over fiscal equalization between the richer (South) andpoorer (North) Länder.     

Federalism and Education Planning in the Federal Republic of Germany

In 1969 demands for greater rationality in education planninggave rise to new institutionalized forms of cooperation betweenthe federation and the Länder. Conflicts between the federaland Land governments, partisan conflicts, and financial conflictsoverlapped this cooperation. Despite the fact that the formalcapacity for dealing with conflicts had many shortcomings, ajoint general plan for education was issued in 1973 as a resultof favorable economic and political conditions. However, in1978 the federal government failed in its attempt to utilizethe dissatisfaction with the existing system of cooperationto extend its responsibilities for education. The deteriorationin economic and political conditions led to an end of effortsto formulate a general plan for education in 1982 and reducedthe scale of joint activities. Forms of educational cooperationbetween the federation and the Länder still exist, butthey no longer fulfill their original purpose. The centralizationof decisionmaking, which was originally expected, never cameinto being.     

How Europe Shapes the Nature of the Belgian Federation: Differentiated EU Impact Triggers Both Co-operation and Decentralization

This paper disentangles the impact of various dimensions of European integration on different aspects of the Belgian federal polity. We discern two opposite trends. While the institutional embeddedness of Belgium as an EU member state results in domestic centralizing tendencies and co-operative political practices, economic integration stimulates political pressures for regional autonomy, contributing to further divergence and hollowing out of the federal level. We conclude by arguing that the EU clearly affects territorial politics in Belgium, but, as the European causes are multidimensional, that also the effects, albeit substantial, will be diverse.     

Cyprus: Federation Under International Safeguards

Constitutional engineering to overcome ethnoregional cleavagesis being put to a severe test on Cyprus, where Greek and Turkishcommunities haltingly endeavor to salvage a divided state Threeyears after independence in 1960, the attempt to govern throughfunctional federalism ended in civil war. Intervention by Greeceand Turkey in 1974 resulted in a de facto partitioning of therepublic into two ethnically homogeneous areas. Under UnitedNations auspices, communal elites bargain for a consociationalsettlement, balancing national autonomy and individual rights.The solution requires international safeguards guaranteeinga new constitution and providing for "free cities" under a bicommunaladministration. Failure of the international community to actwill lead to a partitionist solution as manifested by a growingacceptance of Turkish Cypriot statehood.     

The Macdonald Commission Report and Canadian Federalism

The Macdonald Commission report is the latest in a series ofreports on Canadian federalism. Its proposal for free tradewith the United States has attracted the most public attentionand has already raised the issue of the appropriate role ofthe provinces in the negotiations. This proposal, together withproposed domestic economic and social policies directed at greaterreliance on market forces, would have a significant impact onthe relative roles of the federal and provincial governments.The institutional reforms advocated are intended to make thecentral institutions more representative and responsive, toensure federal leadership within the economic union, to clarifythe distribution of responsibilities between governments, andto facilitate intergovernmental relations. The proposals arebased on an underlying conception that while interdependencebetween governments in a federation is unavoidable, federalismis essentially competitive rather than cooperative in character.     

Brussels between Bern and Berlin: Comparative Federalism Meets the European Union

In the current debate on the future European order, the European Union (EU) is often described as an "emerging federation." This article claims that federalism is not exclusively useful in deliberating about the future of the EU. Non-statecentric conceptions of federalism provide a better understanding of the current structure and functioning of the European system of multilevel governance than most theories of European integration and international relations do. We combine political and economic perspectives of federalism to analyze the "balancing act" between effective political representation and efficient policy-making in the EU. Drawing on the examples of Germany and Switzerland in particular, we argue that the increasing delegation of powers to the central EU level needs to be paralleled by strengthened patterns of fiscal federalism and an empowered representation of functional interests at the European level. Without such "rebalancing," the current legitimacy problems of the EU are likely to intensify.     

Forty Years of German Federalism: Past Trends and New Developments

This article traces the major developments in German federalismfrom 1949 to the present. From a system based on a concept of"dual federalism," which was different in important ways fromthe American system, German federalism became somewhat morelike the postwar American cooperative federalism. Criticismof this system in the 1970s led to various reform efforts, whichmade little headway until the 1980s and the formation of a CDU/CSU-FDPcoalition government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The "turnabout"promised by this government and carried out to some extent includedplans and policies to strengthen the Länder by some sortingout of functions. These efforts were successful at first, butthe federal government has oriented its policies more towardthe national arena. Financial constraints, the nationalizationof basic rights, technological concerns, and pressures by theEC have led to new tendencies toward intergovernmentalizingand centralizing the relations between the federation and Landgovernments.     

The impact of the U.S. war on terrorism upon U.S.-China relations

Using a framework of geopolitical analysis. Oliver Lee argues that the fundamental geopolitical relationships between the United States and China, namely the relationship between the world’s strongest naval and air power and the world’s strongest land power, would not be upset even after the American military presence in central Asia since September 11, 2001. The relationship would remain essentially unaltered because — American initiation of the use of nuclear weapons against China being ruled out for fear of Chinese retaliation — China would be able to withstand any U.S. military offensive conducted with conventional land, sea, and air forces, regardless of whether the U.S. possesses permanent air bases in Central Asia or not, and regardless of how many troops it may station on them. His teaching and research interests include domestic and foreign policies of China and power in America and U.S. foreign policy.     

The Arab Uprisings and the EU's Migration Policies—The Cases of Egypt,Libya, and Syria

The article analyzes the European Union's (EU) migration strategies toward the Arab states in the light of the Arab uprisings in a comparative context. Going through migratory processes related to Egypt, Libya, and Syria, the article discusses Middle Eastern migration and its diverse manifestations, critically assessing the relevance of the EU's migration policy ambitions vis-à-vis the different challenges in the Mediterranean region. In its theoretical approach, the article draws on the concept of non-traditional security, demonstrating that migration constitutes an anarchistic element in the relations between states, which goes beyond traditional foreign policy means. The article characterizes recent EU initiatives concerning migration and demonstrates that despite the fact that the EU has declared migration “one of the strategic priorities in the external relations of the Union,” it seems apparent that the EU has not been able to develop adequate new approaches regarding migration. Many of the suggested initiatives within the framework of the new EU foreign policy setup have not been established yet—they remain preliminary works in progress, projects in different stages or legislative procedures under negotiation between EU institutions. Summing up the cases of Egypt, Libya, and Syria, the article concludes that the migration phenomenon since the start of the Arab unrest in early 2011 constitutes a highly important issue in European–Middle Eastern relations, regarding which, the EU foreign and security measures seem to be relevant only to some degree.     

Making Sense of Greek Austerity

The process of approving a Greek drawing on funds provided by the international community is now familiar. There is concern about the prospect of securing an agreement between the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB), and Greece, which satisfies all parties. This paper suggests that all parties to the agreement have interests in an orderly resolution of the Greek crisis that keeps Greece in the Eurozone. Furthermore, it argues that disagreements and delay before eleventh‐hour agreements can best be explained politically. The paper first demonstrates how Greece, the IMF, and the EU each have a clear interest in finding an orderly solution to the Greek crisis that allows it to remain in the Eurozone. It then outlines the incremental nature of the package and its strategic benefit both for the European banking sector, and governments in Greece and the Eurozone more broadly.     

Why Federalism Does Not Always Take Shape: the Cases of Italy and Nepal

Federalism has been discussed as a potential system of governance in many countries, but in some it has failed to take shape. This has been the case in Nepal and, to a certain extent, in Italy. In fact, in Italy the federal option was rejected at the time of Risorgimento, and constitutional reforms in the 2000s never transformed the country into a federation as desired by political actors such as the Northern League despite some decentralization. In Nepal, the 2007 interim constitution specified that the country would be federal, but the first Constituent Assembly elected to write a new constitution was unable to produce a federal map acceptable to the major political parties and the second is wrestling with the same issue. In both cases, federal structuring was attacked by political actors who argued that it could promote disunity, undermine solidarity, and possibly lead to disintegration. This article argues that the idea of federalism held by prominent political actors as promoting division and conflict played strongly against its implementation.     

Decentring state categories: diaspora within a Palestinian geopolitical assemblage in Nicosia,Cyprus

With over 50% of Palestinians in diaspora, global constructions of what is Palestinian are central to Palestinian geopolitics. This article examines how the meanings and implications of the label “Palestinian” in diaspora are produced as Palestinians negotiate the politics of migration and citizenship while living in Cyprus. Using the concept of a geopolitical assemblage incorporates the role of state immigration control into a critical discussion of diaspora. Cyprus provides a complex context in which the momentary constructions of a Palestinian diaspora in relation to other geopolitical entities affects Palestinians despite their immigration or citizenship status in Cyprus.     

The High Court and Australian Federalism

This article analyzes the constitutional role of the High Courtof Australia during its first hundred years and the effect ofthat role on the Australian federation. The High Court has acceptedas axiomatic that part of its function is the judicial reviewof legislation of both the federal and state legislatures. Itsapproach is relatively modest and "textualist." That approachhas been affected by historical changes, including Australia'sindependence from Great Britain. The decisions of the High Courthave provided a framework for the development of the Australianfederation over the last century in increasing the relativeimportance of the federal government at the cost of the stategovernments. However, those decisions are probably best viewedas reflecting, rather than creating, the changes and developmentsin the federation.     

The politics of Belgium: Institutions and policy under bipolar and centrifugal federalism

This volume seeks to provide an integrated understanding of the Belgian political system through the prism of comparative politics. The transformation of the political system from a unitary into a federal system is used as a connecting theme linking the contributions. The volume is divided in two parts. The first part touches upon the sociological and institutional determinants of policy-making in Belgium, such as the dynamics of the Belgian federal system, the consociational features of the Belgian polity, the presence of a Belgian political culture (or of two distinct political cultures), the fragmentation of its party system and the role of political parties. The second part addresses policy performance and policy reform within the context of Belgian federalism, with a focus on divergence in policy performance and administrative practices, social security as a contentious federal policy area, policy failure and corruption and the impact of EU policies on the domestic federal order.     

German Federalism in Historical Perspective: Federalism as a Substitute for a National State

A German national state was founded comparatively late in themodern era. In 1871 the German princes formed the German Empire.Unde Prussian hegemony, the Empire remained dependent on itsmember states. The constitution of the Weimer Republic of 1919turned the relations between the federation and the states upsidedown. The Länder, as the constituent states close to beinga decentralized unitary state. The Nazi regime centralizd it.After World War II, the West Germans and the Western Alliesagreed on forming a federal type of government. There was, however,controversy about the kind of federalism to be established.The West German Basic Law retained the tradition of a secondfederal parliamentary chamber in which the Land governmentsare represented. Sovereignty is shared and exercised jointlyby the federation and the Länder in most domestic policyfields.     

Politics and Constitutional Reform in Canada: A Study in Political Opposition

Political opposition in a federal system is particularly richand complex, involving not only political parties and pressuregroups, but constitutionally sovereign governments as well.This article examines political opposition in a federation througha case study of the mobilization of opposition to the CanadianConstitution Act. Introduced by the federal government in 1980,the Act proposed a series of important changes in the powersof Canada's ten provinces. The resistance offered by a numberof provinces, the two opposition parties holding seats in Parliament,and a handful of interest groups were sufficient to secure significantchanges in the Act. The analysis presented here demonstratesthe key role of provincial governments—and especiallyof provincial premiers—as oppositional actors, while indicatingthe importance of the courts and intergovernmental conferencesas sites where political opposition expresses itself in a federation.     

Determinants of public support for EU membership: Data from the Baltic countries

Abstract. Focusing on individual–level determinants of public support for EU membership, this paper brings the literature on Western European integration to bear on the Eastern and Central European accession. Existing theories have focused on utilitarian expectations, political values, and domestic politics as determinants of public attitudes toward European integration. The paper discusses the applicability of the proposed theories and measures in the Eastern European context and develops a model that identifies micro–level economic expectations, support for democratic norms, trust in the national government, and perceptions of ethnic tension as possible determinants of public support for EU membership. These propositions are tested with survey data from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, using logistic regression. The results lend strong support to the expected gains and domestic politics hypotheses but suggest that individual competitiveness, a frequently used proxy for economic expectations, may be a poor predictor of attitudes toward the EU in the CEE context. Perceptions of increased ethnic tensions were found to decrease minority support for EU membership in Latvia, the Baltic country that has pursued particularly stringent citizenship and minority policies. Identification with democratic norms did not influence opinions in Latvia and Estonia, while having an unexpected negative effect on the attitudes of the Lithuanian public.