Constructing Self-Enforcing Federalism in the Early United States and Modern Russia

All federal systems face the two fundamental dilemmas of federalism:too strong a center risks overawing the subnational units; andtoo weak a center risks free-riding that makes the system fallapart. Resolving the two dilemmas is problematic because mitigatingone dilemma exacerbates the other. We develop a model of federalinstitutions that shows the circumstances under which both dilemmascan be solved so that federal institutions are self-enforcing.We apply our approach to modern Russia where we suggest thatwhen the center is too strong, its ability to extract rentsincreases and the benefits for maintaining participation inthe federal bargain disappears. We also suggest strong parallelsbetween Russia and those of the early United States under theArticles of Confederation.     

Federalism and Political Recentralization in the Russian Federation: United Russia As the Party of Power

This article analyzes trends in Russian federalism by examiningthe rise of United Russia as a party of power. For the firsttime in post-Soviet history, a pro-presidential party of powerhas been successfully established, both reflecting and facilitatingpolitical recentralization. This article traces United Russia'srole in this recentralization process and examines the factorsthat have allowed United Russia to succeed as the central government'sinstrument for deepening and consolidating political centralizationwhere other attempts have failed. The impact of political recentralizationhas changed the face and nature of Russian federalism in a veryshort period of time and raises concerns that the politicaltrajectory of Russia is away from a federalist structure andtoward a unitary state.     

The European Community: A Balancing Act

The European Community has traditionally been analyzed usingtheories and concepts drawn from international relations ratherthan from federalism. This article emphasizes the balance betweenthe representation of territorial and nonterritorial interestsin the Community and argues that concepts drawn from federalismcan be useful in analytically understanding the Community aslong as the American model of federalism is not viewed as thenecessary federal referent. It describes the relative importanceof the territorial dimension within the major Community institutions—theCommission, the Council of Ministers, the European Council,the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice.The Court of Justice, it is argued, is particularly importantin giving the Community a "federal" contour. However, its methodof operation differentiates it in important ways from the Americanjudiciary. The role of territorial politics within the Communityis such that the Community's policymaking process, while unique,is certainly recognizable to students of comparative federalism.     

Public Sector Politics, Modernization, and Federalism: The Canadian and American Experiences

The focus of this analysis is an attempt to compare Canadianand American federalism in terms of Samuel Beer's modernizationtheory. In Canada, it is argued that modernization had led tothe enhancement of provincial power rather than the centralizationof the federal system. The Westminster model of parliamentarygovernment contributed to these developments, although the wayin which power is organized in government has been even moreimportant in determining the directions taken by Canadian federalism.     

Priorities,government institutions and foreign assistance in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Russia

This article argues that for a number of reasons, the Russian state has had limited success in tackling the growing problem of HIV/AIDS. It begins with brief discussions of the health context of HIV/AIDS in the Russian Federation and the development of institutions in Russia post‐1991. It then discusses the attempts that have been made thus far to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic, both on the part of the federal government and with the aid of international donor funding. It is argued that a number of factors have contributed to Russia's lack of success in tackling HIV/AIDS. Firstly, the infection has been interpreted as a health problem rather than as a phenomenon which impacts on all aspects of public life. Secondly, there have been weak incentives at the federal level, which has resulted in a lack of a coordinated approach to HIV/AIDS at the national level. Thirdly, there have been regional variations in the autonomy and independence from the federal state impacting on the struggle against HIV in the Russian regions. Evidence from research undertaken by DFID is drawn upon to illustrate these variations in tackling HIV/AIDS. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Reassessment of Federalism as a Degree of Decentralization

The central argument in this article is that it is wrong toconceive of federalism as simply a degree of decentralization.Decentralization can only be applied meaningfully to federalismin matters that belong to the central government. Even then,unlike unitary decentralization, which is entirely at the discretionof the central government, federal decentralization is bothmandatory and guaranteed. Much more than this, however, thekey to distinguishing federal systems from nonfederal systems,which also have "degrees of decentralization," lies in the conceptof noncentralization by which is meant that matters belongingto the states cannot ordinarily be centralized unilaterally.It is this noncentralization, which opposes decentralization(because decentralization presupposes centralization), thatmakes federalism a highly distinct form of "decentralization."     

Public Enterprises and Canadian Foreign Economic Policy

To what extent can public enterprises serve as instruments ofpolicy enabling the federal government to assert a measure ofcontrol over Canada's foreign economic relations? This articlepresents an overview of public enterprises in Canada and highlightsthe special features of the Canadian political economy whichdifferentiate it from other advanced industrial economies. Theactivities of the Canada Development Corporation and CanadianNational Railways are analyzed in terms of whether they reinforceor undermine the federal government's authority in foreign economicpolicymaking. It appears that the relative autonomy of publicenterprises from government controls, most pronounced in thecase of commercial enterprises operating in competitive markets,fragments decisionmaking. Given that governmental power in Canadais already fragmented due to competitive federalism, and giventhe expanded activities of provincial public enterprises inrecent years, a lack of direction over the "subgovernment" offederal public enterprises compounds the difficulties for Ottawato conduct a coherent, foreign economic policy.     

The Past and Future of the New Judicial Federalism

This article argues that the new judicial federalism, the increasedreliance by state judges on state declarations of rights tosecure rights unavailable under the U.S. Constitution, representsnot a return to an earlier federalism but rather something new.Although the basis for a state civil liberties jurisprudencehad long existed, the "discovery’ of state constitutionalguarantees did not occur until the Warren Court pioneered anapproach to civil liberties that state courts could emulate.This "discovery" has led to only intermittent reliance on stateguarantees. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that state judges willreturn to the total deference to federal rulings in civil libertiescases that characterized preceding decades.     

The Literature on Nigerian Federalism: A Critical Appraisal

There is a large body of literature on federalism in Nigeriacovering such major issues as the origins of Nigerian federalism,requisites of federalism, federalism versus other forms of association,the number of state units in the federal system, fiscal issues,political parties, distributional issues, and intergovernmentalrelations. However, a number of issues have received relativelylittle scholarly attention, including the economic aspects ofNigerian federalism, population movements and the federal arrangement,language policies, federal ethics, and various critical governmentaland nongovernmental institutions. There is a need to establishinstitutions for the study of federalism in Nigeria and to reduceethnic and ideological biases in research on Nigerian federalism.     

Föderalismus und wohlfahrtsstaatliche Entwicklung. Österreich und die Schweiz im Vergleich

Starting from the stylised fact that federal institutions are held to be inimical to welfare state expansion, this paper examines the ways in which federalism has shaped the dynamics of welfare state development in Switzerland and Austria. A comparison of these different federal polities reveals that the welfare breaking effect attached to federalism crucially depends on the extent of vertical power separation. In both countries economic competition among constituent units did not fuel a race to the bottom in social standards. In Switzerland, the most important reason connected to federalism for why federal social policy was delayed and downsized was policy-preemption by the cantons and their considerable influence on the federal policymaking process. In contrast, the Austrian Länder neither had major social policy competencies nor an effective veto power which allowed them to block the centralisation of public policy. Instead, federalism is subordinate to the partisan arena at the central state level which itself is dominated by political parties quite favourable to welfare state expansion.     

European elections—Greece

This article discusses the implications for the German federal system of incorporating the new Länder of eastern Germany following German unification in 1990. It begins by examining the relationships between federation and Läander — commonly termed ‘cooperative’ federalism — which developed in the Federal Republic after its foundation. It then discusses how the integration of the new Länder in the east has added to and seriously exacerbated a range of tensions which had begun to emerge in ‘cooperative’ federalism prior to 1990, before moving on to outline the Länder contribution to the debate on reforming the federal system which was made possible under the terms of unification. This debate was, it is argued, an opportunity missed by the Länder — or, more precisely, was one they were incapable of taking ‐ to shore up and strengthen their position as an effective counterbalance to the federation in united Germany.     

Surface-Transportation Funding in a New Century: Assessing One Slice of the Federal Marble Cake

This article examines American federalism through the prismof the surface transportation program, one of the nation's largestgrant-in-aid programs. No matter how pragmatic or intense thedesire to express assessments in simple terms, federalism isa time-sensitive reflection of our collective experiential understanding.Facts, values, hypotheses, and concepts are derived from thiscollective understanding. The experience of the surface transportationprogram under ISTEA and TEA–21 illustrates the challengeof achieving a clear picture of federalism when radical changesoccur. ISTEA and TEA–21 have significantly altered traditionalintergovernmental relationships, particularly as the federalrole in transportation appears to have become more ambiguousthan at any time in the past 45 years. Thus, at the outset ofthe twenty-first century, the federal role in transportationis shifting, becoming far less focused. Other goals are emerging,leading the federal transportation role to become more of ameans to an end than the central focal point.     

Testing Federal Student-Aid Fungibility in Two Competing Versions of Federalism

This study employs twenty-three years of federal, state, andinstitutional student-aid data to investigate the effects offederal grants to students on the behavior of higher educationinstitutions. Unlike previous studies, this research differentiatesbetween federal-aid programs according to whether a federalprogram follows "redivision federalism" or "cooperative federalism"concepts. Pell grants, exemplifying the former, appear highlyfungible and inversely related to institutional grants to students,while campus-based federal programs, exemplifying "cooperativefederalism, " appear less fungible and positively associatedwith institutional grants. The results also suggest that grantsto students are more important to higher education opportunitythan indicated by some previous research.     

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.     

Austria: A Federation without Federalism

Austria is an understudied case in comparative federalism. Thereare, however, interesting theoretical observations concerningthe workings of Austrian federalism. In particular, analysisof the Austrian federal system is likely to call attention tothe relationship between political institutions and the socialstructure in the study of comparative federalism. This essayseeks to expose the centralizing tendencies related to societalhomogeneity that exert broad pressures on Austria's federalsystem. Empirical evidence shows a pan-Austrian national frameworkof reference employed by political actors even when the policyareas in question are within exclusive Länder jurisdiction.Without the territorially based distinctiveness necessary tosustain a federal outlook, the Austrian federal system has movedin a centralist direction.     

Sui Generis and Treaty Citizenship

This article, written from an Aboriginal perspective, explores the problematic invitation to federal citizenship in Canada for Aboriginal peoples. Its focus is on the deficits of such an offering for the constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples, which is characterized by sui generis and treaty citizenship. Informed by Aboriginal and intercultural perspectives, the article argues that the offerings of statutory citizenship for Aboriginal peoples inverts rather than respects the constitutional relationship. It looks at how the Supreme Court of Canada has located and structured sui generis Aboriginal orders, the concepts of sui generis citizenship, treaty federalism, and constitutional supremacy as compared with the idea of federal citizenship, concluding that such 'invitations' to Canadian citizenship are inconsistent with and infringe upon the constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples. By understanding the prismatic nature of Canadian federalism in a postcolonial context, this article aims at reconceptualizing Canadian citizenship in terms of ecological belonging, fundamental rights, and respect for human diversity and creativity.     

Judicial Review and the Supreme Court of Washington, 1890-1986

The literature on judicial review by state supreme courts suggeststhat from the beginnings of the republic until today, statejudicial review has shifted generally from what can be calleda restraintist departmentalism to an activist "new federalism."Since statehood in 1889, the Supreme Court of Washington hasreacted to constitutional challenges in much the same manneras the high courts of other states. Recently, however, Washington'sjurists have forged an independent course by applying the morerestrictive aspects of the state constitution to private andgovernmental intrusions into personal lives rather than relyingon the guidelines provided by the federal Constitution and theU.S. Supreme Court. The nature of this second "Golden Age" ofstate judicial review, because of its effect on federalism ratherthan the separation of powers, requires appraisal from a newperspective.     

What Role Does the "Federalism Bonus" Play in Presidential Selection?

The conflicting outcome of the electoral and popular votes inthe 2000 presidential election provoked calls to abolish oralter the electoral college. One prominent criticism is thatthe institution distorts election outcomes by providing disproportionateinfluence to small states. If each state receives a number ofpresidential electors equal to that states' number of membersin the U.S. House of Representatives plus the two senators,then the "federalism bonus" represents the two electoral collegevotes that correspond to the position of each state as an equalentity in the Senate. This research examines how the "federalismbonus" influences presidential selection by addressing threequestions. First, why did the framers include a federal componentin the electoral college? Second, under what circumstances hasthe "federalism bonus" played a role in presidential selection?Third, how would the various alternatives for reform affectthe federal component of the electoral college, and what isthe likelihood of adoption for each?     

How federalism influences welfare spending: Belgium federalism reform through the perspective of the synthetic control method

The question of whether and how federalism influences a country's welfare state has been a longstanding concern of political scientists. However, no agreement exists on exactly how, and under what conditions, federal structures impact the welfare state. This article examines this controversy. It concludes theoretically that the specific constellation of federal structures and distribution of powers need to be considered when theorising the effects of federalism on the welfare state. Using the case of Belgium and applying the synthetic control method, it is shown in the article that without the federalism reform of 1993, the country would have had further decreases in social spending rather than a consolidation of this spending in the years after 1993. In the case of Belgium, the combination of increased subnational spending autonomy in a still national financing system provided ideal conditions for a positive federalism effect on social spending to occur.     

George W. Bush, the Party System, and American Federalism

George W. Bush's presidency presents two major puzzles. TheRepublican Party has traditionally stood for "limited government,"but Bush's principal legacy for federalism is centralizationof power in the federal government and the executive branch.Most modern presidents have neglected their partisan duties,but Bush has been a uniquely vigorous party leader. Here, weshow that Bush's puzzling lack of attention to federalism issuesis in large part the result of his efforts to strengthen theRepublican Party to cope with the political and electoral challengescharacteristic of the contemporary political context. We explainwhy the Bush administration's strategy for redressing the Republicanparty's shortcomings has presupposed the deprecation of federalism,and consider the implications of our argument for the developmentof federal arrangements.