Faces of Federalism: From Bullinger to Jefferson

This study argues that the eighteenth-century political philosophyof federalism found its roots in covenant theology of earlyReformed Protestantism in Zurich. It contends that there wasa progression covenant or federal thought from the first publishedarticulation of the theological covenant by Bullinger in 1534,through the use of the covenant notion in defense of tyrannicideby Philippe Mornay, to Johannes Althusius's political philosophyof federalism, as well as the political theories Thomas Hobbesand John Locke, to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutionof the United States. These different faces or variations offederalism shared several common elements over the 250-yearspan.     

The Declaration of Independence As Part of an American National Compact

The Declaration of Independence is an efficient, abstractedsummary of the eighteenth-century American mind. Viewed in thiscontext, the Declaration is not only an efficient summary ofAmerican political thought, but also a careful rhetorical balancingof contending views. The document could be read with approvalby students of Whig political thought, or the Enlightenment;rationalists, or the deeply religious; those jealous of statepower, or nationalists. Indeed, the manner in which state andnational perspectives are balanced make this the first nationaldocument to lay out federalism as a central aspect of Americanpolitical thought. The document also turns out to be part ofa political covenant of the kind long used in America, and originallyderived from covenant theology. Political covenants, calledcompacts in their secular form, would have had the Declarationserve as a preamble and bill of rights to a constitution. Asit turns out, the Declaration of Independence serves preciselysuch a role with respect to the United States Constitution,and is thus part of a national covenant/compact.     

Anglicizing the United States Constitution: James Bryce's Contribution to Australian Federalism

James Bryce's analysis of American federalism made it possiblefor the Australian founders to reproduce federal institutionson the American model without replicating the republican andempirical ideas that underpinned them in the United States Constitution.Bryce's account in The American Commonwealth (1888) appealedto Australia's founders because it was suited to their needs.Bryce was English, and, like a sensible nineteenth-century Englishman,he argued that U. S. institutions had little to do with intellectualproduct. Instead, they were largely English institutions adaptedto American purposes. Reading Bryce, Australia's founders assumedthat if federal institutions had little to do with abstracttheory, and had simply been adapted to American circumstances,they might also be adapted to Australian circumstances. Thus,Bryce's approach to American federalism allowed Australia'sfounders to substitute their own colonial tradition of parliamentarydemocracy under the Crown for the republican principles of rightsand the separation of powers that underlie the U.S. Constitution.     

Fragmented Welfare States: Federal Institutions and the Development of Social Policy

Despite political scientists' growing appreciation of the ways in which institutions influence political processes, the “new institutionalism” has so far had a limited impact on the comparative study of welfare state development. This article discusses some broad issues concerning institutions and public policy by exploring the implications of one set of institutions — those associated with federalism — for the politics of social policy. Federal institutions encourage three distinctive dynamics: they influence the policy preferences, strategies, and influence of social actors; they create important new institutional actors (the constituent units of the federation); and they generate predictable policymaking dilemmas associated with shared decision-making. Comparisons between social policy development in Canada and the United States are used to demonstrate that while federalism clearly matters, how it matters will depend on the characteristics of a particular federal system and the ways in which federal institutions interact with other important variables.     

The Political Constitution of Federalism in Antebellum America: The Nullification Debate as an Illustration of Informal Mechanisms of Constitutional Change

The requirements of the U.S. Constitution are often assumedto be either clear or defined by the judiciary through interpretation,or both. Examination of the nullification crisis of 1833 indicatesthat this view of the U.S. Constitution is misleading. The nullificationcrisis provoked three competing visions of the appropriate understandingof federalism in the context of textual ambiguity and judicialactivity. The subsequent development of federalism was determinedby that political conflict and compromise. The nullificationcontroversy provides an important example of the openness ofconstitutional norms, the significance of political debate inthe shaping of constitutional meaning, and the complexity ofantebellum political thought.     

Federalism: The Lost Tradition?

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Americanhistorians decided that the accounts by which people in theUnited States understood their past were unrealistic, subjectto romantic distortions, and chauvinistic. Even though somestories were well intentioned, they were false and must be rejected.One well-known example is Parson Weems' story of George Washingtonas a boy cutting down the cherry tree and, when questioned byhis father, saying, "I cannot tell a lie." In the process of"realistic" reinterpretation and muckraking, however, thesehistorians threw out many real babies with the surplus of romanticbath water. A case in point is the tradition of federalism thatshaped American history, permeated the experience of the menwho wrote the United States Constitution, and underlay everyfacet of our social order. The so-called "realists" went toofar and tossed out an important part of the reality that isAmerica. Can the federal tradition be recovered and placed againat the focus of American political thought, or is it a losttradition?     

Federalism at the American Founding: In Defense of the Diamond Theses

Vincent Ostrom's analysis of The Federalist's understandingof federalism fails to consider the historical and theoreticalcontext of The Federalist's arguments. Ostrom takes certainrhetorical devices of The Federalist too much at face value.He correctly sees that the authors of The Federalist view eighteenth-centuryfederalism as bad government. He incorrectly concludes thatsince it is bad government, that understanding could not havebeen the true meaning of federalism. The Federalist understandseighteenth-century federalism to be "the true meaning" of federalismas established by the political discourse of the times. TheConstitution departs radically from eighteenth-century federalism,but The Federalist seeks to conceal how radical the departureis, in part, by offering a looser definition of federalism thatwill allow the Constitution to be characterized as a federalsystem. A consideration of the writings of the opponents tothe Constitution suggests the limited success of this attemptat redefinition.     

Refederalizing Russia: Debates on the Idea of Federalism in Russia

Russia has been struggling to come to terms with the ethno-federalstructure it inherited from the USSR. Central and regional politicalactors have sought to restructure federal relations in a waythat marks a break from the pseudo-federalism of the past, andboth the 1992 Federation Treaty and the 1993 Constitution ofthe Russian Federation declared the establishment of a "federaldemocracy" This article investigates the process of refederalizationby examining debates over the idea of federalism in Russia.Despite an initial wide-ranging discussion, federalism is increasinglyseen in strategic terms by political elites. The federal systemis asymmetrical and bureaucratic, and it is based on a seriesof treaties between the center and constituent units, ratherthan on an effective constitution that binds the center andregions together.     

Religious Pluralism and Democratic Inclusion: The American Recipe for Peace

There is no simple formula for religious peace in the United States, such as “separation of church andstate.” Instead, the US Constitution establishes two opposing principles -- religious freedom and civicinclusion -- that must be continually rebalanced. The legal result is a “serpentine wall” between church andstate that creates zones of cooperation as well as separation. Moreover, the relatively peaceful coexistence ofdiverse religious communities within the United States is due, not simply to the principles of the FirstAmendment, but also to the de-spatialized and de-ritualized character of American religion, and to the absence of explicitly confessional parties in the American polity.     

THE RISE AND DEMISE OF COERCIVE FEDERALISM*

Abstract: The question of how a fiscal balance might be maintained between the Commonwealth and the States exercised the minds of the framers of the Constitution before 1901 and has been of concern ever since. Centralization of financial power in the Commonwealth has resulted from decisions of the High Court of Australia especially the two Uniform Tax Cases which in 1942 established, and in 1957 reinforced, the Commonwealth's hegemony in the revenue field. This hegemony enabled the Commonwealth to influence, if not dictate, State policy initiatives by the making of conditional grants for a wide range of specific purposes under Section 96 of the Constitution. The practice of making specific purpose grants as an element in what has been called “coercive federalism” was adopted in varying degree by the Commonwealth during the years between 1943 and 1975. The “new federalism” policies of the present government have as their objective the reversal of this practice and in its place the restoration of State automomy in the expenditure of a pre-determined share of income tax revenues. Some of the problems entailed in the withdrawal of specific purpose grants are outlined, and the paper also suggests an institutional mechanism to maintain a proper fiscal balance between Commonwealth and States as part of the “new federalism”.     

Origin, Operation, and Significance: The Federalism of William H. Riker

William Riker transformed the study of federalism by advancingboth a methodological approach and numerous substantive propositions.Methodologically, he introduced students of federalism to thescientific approach of positive political science, illustratingthe development of "testable and tested generalizations." Substantively,he explained the origins of federal systems as a bargain amongpolitical leaders with expansionist and militaristic concerns.He argued that the United States was a politically centralizedfederal system from its founding. He linked the degree of centralizationin federal systems to the degree of centralization among theirpolitical parties. Despite all his work, though, Riker ultimatelydismissed federalism as a minor institution having little impacton policy outcomes.     

The Role of Semi-Direct Democracy in Shaping Swiss Federalism: The Behavior of Cantons Regarding Revision of the Constitution, 1866-1981

Swiss federalism operates as a semi-direct democracy involvingreiterated constitutional choice by the people and the territorialunits. In this respect, the Swiss federal process is uniquein comparison to other federal systems. An analysis of constitutionalreferenda and constitutional initiatives conducted from 1866to 1981 was undertaken in order to characterize the politicalbehavior of Swiss cantons concerning the referenda that havealtered the original Constitution of 1848. The behavior of thecantons may be explained by their sociopolitical features. Threegroups of cantons are distinguished by their pattern of behaviortoward proposed revisions of the federal Constitution. In addition,a comparison was made of the similarity and divergence of thecantons with the pattern of behavior of the entire federationin order to measure the degree of cohesion of the Swiss partnership.Strikingly, some of the cantons with a minority subculture weremore frequently in the winning coalition than were some cantonsthat share more of the characteristics of the majority culture.The Swiss federal process is found to strengthen nation-buildingby means of the continual adaptation, along with some innovation,of the original constitutional design on the part of the peopleas a whole and the cantons.     

Carl J. Friedrich on Responsibility and Authority

Carl J. Friedrich’s concept of administrative responsibility is examined in his published works from 1935 to 1960. Friedrich’s idea of responsibility encompassed not only political and personal responsibility within the hierarchy of bureaucratic organizations, but also functional responsibility based on scientific knowledge and professional standards required by the reality of administrative discretion. Friedrich’s notion of responsibility is contrasted with that of Herman Finer, who espoused strict obedience to political and administrative superiors. An examination of the NOMOS series of edited volumes from the later stage of Friedrich’s career reflects the consistency of his views on responsibility and on the relationship of responsibility to authority based on reasoned communication. Friedrich’s optimism regarding such authority contrasts with Hannah Arendt’s view that authority is no longer an operative concept in modern society. Friedrich lays an important foundation for continued interest among public administrative scholars in the concept of administrative responsibility.     

Felix Morley on Freedom and Federalism

Federalism was central to Felix Morley's political thought becausehe regarded federalism as being essential to the protectionof individual freedom in the United States. Federalism protectsfreedom, argued Morley, by limiting government, constrainingthe potential tyranny of a national majority, and reservingcontrol over local affairs to local citizens. In turn, he believedthat freedom is necessary for the maintenance of federalism.Freedom, however, was being threatened by the rise of the social-welfarestate and a militaristic foreign policy, both justified in thename of a centralizing Jacobin democracy destructive of Americanfederalism.     

Irregular immigrants in Australia and the United States — Rights,realities, and political mobilization

This article considers the gap between the universal promise of human rights and the reality of the rights enjoyed by irregular immigrants in liberal democracies such as Australia and the United States. Against the idea that stronger international rights enforcement mechanisms will automatically improve the position of irregular immigrants, it argues that international law currently provides a warrant for the way in which countries like Australia and the United States treat irregular immigrants. After developing this argument, the article explores how irregular immigrants might employ the language of rights more effectively in their political mobilizations.     

Comparing federal institutions: Power and representation in six federations

The study of comparative federalism is often hampered by the diverse range of federal institutional arrangements in practice, as well as the ambiguity surrounding the concept of federalism. This article identifies three main conceptual approaches to federalism – sociological, constitutional, and governmental – then proposes a revised governmental approach that takes account of the institutional effects of federalism, for application in comparative politics research. Minimally defined, all federations are products of institutional rules that create separate territorial spheres of authority. This article compares Canada, the United States, Australia, Austria, Germany and Switzerland along two key institutional dimensions that structure politics in the federal state: resource allocation, and the representation of constituent units in federal-level decision-making.     

Understanding the effects of religious attendance on political participation among ethnic minorities of different religions

In the United States, active church membership among ethnic and racial minorities has been linked to higher political participation. In Europe, the influence of religious attendance on political mobilisation of ethnic minorities has so far been little explored, despite the heated public debate about the public role of religion and particularly Islam. This study uses the 2010 Ethnic Minority British Election Study to theorise the relationship between religious attendance and political participation of ethnic minorities in a European context and extend existing theories to non‐Christian minority religions. The article shows that despite a significantly different context in which religion's place in political life is more contentious, regular religious attendance increases political participation rates of ethnic minorities. Some possible explanatory mechanisms are tested and an important distinction is introduced between those mechanisms that mediate, and those that moderate the impact of religion. The study finds that British minority churches and places of worships vary in how willing and effective they are in politically motivating their worshippers, and concludes that this relates to the political salience of certain religions within the United Kingdom context.     

The Articles of Confederation as the Background to the Federal Republic

The Articles of Confederation, usually neglected by those studyingthe American founding, formed an important part of the backgroundto the 1787 Constitution. The Articles functioned as the firstnational constitution of the United States and, as such, reflectedAmerican political theory as it emerged during the Revolution.Equally important, a textual analysis reveals the extent towhich the 1787 Constitution was a logical extension of the Articlesof Confederation. Most of the Articles were incorporated inthe U.S. Constitution, and several key changes found in thelater document were present in embryo in the Articles of Confederation.     

Jewish Religiosity and Political Attitudes in the United States and Israel

Does religious commitment have a common political impact across national frontiers? To date, that question has been explored empirically only for Roman Catholics, who might be expected to behave similarly because of centralizing resources in their tradition. This article explores the extent of transnational political attitudes among Jews in the United States and Israel, two groups with less centralized authority structures and radically different religious situations. Parallel surveys of Jews in the United States and Israel, analyzed by OLS regression with the slope dummy approach, indicate that Jewish religiosity has a common influence on most political issues but often has much sharper effects in one society than the other. Given our expectation that Jews would exhibit lower levels of transnational similarity than Roman Catholics, the findings reinforce scholars who perceive religion as a potent transnational political factor.