A research topic in education law and policy: The development of regionalism and federalism in Europe and their impact on educational policy and administration

There has been an “upgrading” of the regional level in the European policy process which also has implications for educational policy and administration. At the same time federalism has become a model not only for nation states but also for the construction of Europe. While regionalism and federalism has attracted more and more scholarly attention there has been a neglect of the implications for the educational field. The article starts by looking for models of regionalisation and federalisation as a legal and political technique of conciliating between the different levels in education. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Federal Implications of Northern Territory Statehood

Just over a decade since the failed referendum of 1998, statehood for the Northern Territory (NT) is back on the political agenda. The achievement of statehood would be a first for Australian federalism, where no new state has been created or admitted since Federation. Following a discussion of the concept of statehood and how it might be achieved, it traces the political development of the NT. The article then examines the implications of NT statehood for the Australian federation and finds that statehood would facilitate constitutional change in the federation by lowering the threshold required for success in a national referendum. Statehood may also raise questions about the equal representation in the Senate of less populous states. However, statehood would have no effect upon financial arrangements with the Commonwealth, the standing of the Northern Territory at COAG meetings, or the legal standing of the other states.     

Los Congresos Estatales y la Política Federal en México: state legislatures and federal policymaking in Mexico

The Mexican Constitution, in the Poder Legislativo, grants state legislatures the authority to introduce legislation (iniciativas de ley) in the federal congress. In this paper the authors examine this powerful mechanism through which the Mexican state legislatures can directly influence policymaking at the federal level. Using a new data set of state-led initiatives, this work: describes the frequency with which iniciativas are introduced; describes the substance, timing, and final disposition of these state-led initiatives; and explains which factors affect the probability of presenting a state-led initiative. The authors find that party competition and partisan divisions at the state and federal levels play a significant role in the use of iniciativas de los congresos estatales. The authors’ study of this peculiar authority granted to the Mexican states contributes to the rich discussion of the changing role of the states in the era of Mexico’s nuevo federalismo.     

Beyond the Blame Game: Political Strategies for State Funding Reform

There is growing concern that intergovernmental financial relations in the Australian federation are becoming increasingly acrimonious and dysfunctional. This paper argues that it is necessary to analyse State funding as a whole, including the critical relationship between State‐level taxation and its reform and the broader Commonwealth Grants Commission regime, if we are to establish a system of State funding which is financially sustainable, promotes economic efficiency and is broadly congruent with established norms of Australian federalism. Above all, based on international experience, we argue Commonwealth leadership is required to achieve this goal. We conclude with a case study concerning resource taxation which demonstrates how the Commonwealth could provide leadership using a ‘bundled’ approach to policy reform. It is argued that such an approach has the potential to alleviate wider intergovernmental conflicts which currently afflict Australian federalism.     

Level of services,spatial dependence and allocative efficiency in local governments

In the public economics literature expenditure needs, allocative efficiency and spatial dependence of local governments costs have been widely analysed separately implying bias estimations of the expenditure needs at local level. An original procedure that simultaneously takes into account the standard level of services, the allocative efficiency and the spatial proximity among Municipalities, has been proposed. The estimation strategy has been applied on a very detailed database of more than 4,000 Italian Municipalities for the year 2013.     

全球治理与国际竞争法的网络模式

由于新自由主义理论的勃兴和市场机制的内在张力,国际社会步入了国际化市场经济阶段。国际化市场经济要求国际社会建立国际竞争机制解决国际市场失灵。在"洛克式"的国际体系下,借助全球治理理论建立一个多层次的国际竞争治理网络模式是国际社会现实的选择。多层次的国际竞争治理网络模式可以借鉴经济学的联邦财政理论和体制竞争理论确定各个层次的管辖权划分。     

Negotiating Russian Federalism: A Simulation for Comparative Politics

While the use of simulations in the international relations classroom has proliferated over the past decade, this pedagogical tool has been largely neglected in the comparative politics classroom. Simulations in comparative politics can be a useful component in teaching students about the diversity within foreign countries and the dynamic of domestic policymaking. We describe here an informative and easy-to-run simulation on Russian federalism which can be integrated into courses on Russian politics or easily adapted for use in other courses, especially those focusing on countries in which center-regional relations are an important dimension. The simulation is based on the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Federal Assembly, and is a great way to illustrate through experiential learning the quid pro quo of Russian federalism. We provide detailed information on English-language sources that both instructors and students can use during the simulation, along with an Appendix and a Website that provides everything instructors need to run the simulation in their own classes.     

Tensions between congress and the executive in nineteenth-century Argentina: federal intervention and separation of powers

SUMMARY

This article analyses the debates that took place in the Congress of Argentina between the enactment of the constitution in 1853 and the end of the century, regarding the powers of the executive and legislative branches for intervening in the provinces in case of internal conflict or external attack. It focuses on the controversies arising from different bills submitted to congress in order to enact a general intervention act to resolve, once and for all, the powers of each branch in that matter. Although those bills did not pass, a study of them shows the existing disagreements about the operation of the federal system and the separation of powers. Some of the differences were linked to the discussion of American constitutional doctrine in which Argentina had been engaged since the mid nineteenth century in order to solve the dilemmas of organizing its political institutions. This article claims that this analysis contributes to ongoing debates on the roots of political conflict in Argentina by showing the importance of institutional controversies, and argues that it is necessary to address the role of congress and of doctrinal dissent in order to revise the role that historiography has given to the disputes over power as an overall explanation for political confrontations.     

尼日利亚宪法述评

尼日利亚宪法和非洲大多数国家一样,发端于殖民地时期,受到原宗主国宪法模式和宪法原则的深刻影响.自1960年独立以来,尼日利亚宪法走上了一条曲折的探索道路,经历了由民选政府治理到军政府统治再到民选政府统治的转变.随着民主化浪潮在非洲各国的扩展,尼日利亚于1999年举行多党大选,并颁布了新宪法.然而,新宪法颁布后受到了国内外学术界的批评,在实施过程中也面临一定的问题.了解尼日利亚宪法曲折的发展道路及其完善的宪法制度,并深入探讨其面临的困境与发展出路,将有助于更好地认识非洲国家宪法发展的现状与发展趋势,对于我们国家的宪政建设也不无裨益.