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Our dialogue on federalism is organized by theme area and each theme is examined at country and international roundtables.
- The country roundtable is a one-day event at which 10-20 participants gather to share their expertise within the context of their country
- The international roundtable is a two-day event attended by selected country roundtable participants
The first themes to be examined are:
- Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries
- Distribution of Powers and Responsibilities in Federal Countries
- Legislative, Executive and Judicial Governance in Federal Countries
- The Practice of Fiscal Federalism: Comparative Perspectives
- Foreign Relations in Federal Countries
- Local Governments and Metropolitain Regions in Federal Countries
- Diversity in Federal Systems
- Intergovernmental Relations in Federal Countries
Other Themes Under Construction
- High Courts in Federal Countries
- Parties, Interest Groups, and the Politics of Civil Society in Federal Countries
- The Political Economy of Federal Countries
- Federalism and Ethnic Conflict/Minority Nationalism
- Making and Unmaking Federalism Worldwide
- Debating the Theory and Practice of Federal Countries
Do you have a theme that you think should be considered? If so, please click here.
Theme 6: Local Governments and Metropolitan Regions in Federal Countries
This theme examines the role of local government and metropolitan regions in federal systems.
Matters that will be examined include
- the key institutions of local government
- the constitutional nature of local government - the entrenchment in the federal or sub-national constitutions
- the powers and functions of local government
- the democratic nature of local government
- the financial management
- the extent of the supervision by superior orders of government
- the relationships with other orders of government directly or through organized local government
- the political culture of local governance
- local government role in the evolution of the federal system: emerging issues and trends.
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Theme 5: Foreign Relations in Federal Countries
This theme focuses on the international activities of constituent units of federal countries (constituent unit diplomacy) in an age of globalization. It examines:
- the characteristics of federal countries (geography, number and size of constituent units, economy, linguistic, cultural and ethnic composition and so on) that are relevant to such activities
- the impact of the regional and global settings
- the constitutional context in which federal-constituent unit interactions in foreign relations take place
- the organization and functioning of intergovernmental relations in the field of foreign policy
- the domestic determinants of constituent unit diplomacy
- the range and scope of activities undertaken by constituent units internationally
- the implications for both the conduct of foreign policy and the development of federalism in these countries.
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Theme 4: The Practice of Fiscal Federalism: Comparative Perspectives
The focus of this theme process was to examine the principal features of fiscal federalism against the backdrop of theories of fiscal federalism in each federal country, including:
- the distribution of revenue-raising powers
- revenue sharing by governments
- fiscal equalization or its equivalent if existent
- fiscal disparities among constituent units
- various types of grants-in-aid and revenue transfers
- budget policies and practices
- borrowing policies and practices
- expenditure, accounting, and auditing rules
- democratic accountability
- current issues and controversies in fiscal federalism.
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Theme 3 - Legislative, Executive and Judicial Governance in Federal Countries
This theme focused on comparing and contrasting legislative and executive governance--national, regional, and local--in federal countries in light of the constitution and actual practice. There are numerous and important variations among federal systems with respect to legislative, executive and judicial structures and governance, including:
- parliamentary and presidential federations
- singular and plural executives
- strong and weak executives
- bicameral and unicameral legislative bodies
- strong and weak senates
- a separation or non-separation of legislative and executive powers and duties.
Issues such as citizen and constituent-unit representation in the legislature and executive, electoral bases and rules, majority rule, and minority representation were also examined.
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Theme 2 - Distribution of Powers and Responsibilities in Federal Countries
Under this theme, there was an in-depth examination of:
- the distribution of governmental, political, monetary, fiscal, administrative, and policy responsibilities in each federal country (including legislative, executive and judicial)
- symmetry and asymmetry in the distribution of responsibilities
- the reasons and ways in which responsibilities are explicitly and implicitly exclusive and/or concurrent and/or shared in the constitution
- the reasons and ways in which responsibilities become divided and/or shared in actual intergovernmental practice
- current controversies over the division and/or sharing of responsibilities
- (6) assessment of the exclusive and concurrent exercise of responsibilities.
Given that there is an extensive literature on the theory of the distribution of responsibilities, especially fiscal responsibilities in federal systems, the book from this theme process includes theoretical models with discussions of how and why each federal country conforms to and departs from the models.
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Theme 1 - Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries
This theme examined:
- the relevant historical, cultural, political, theoretical and economic antecedents of each federal country constitutional origin
- the key actors, political forces, and debates and controversies involved in drafting and approving the constitution or its equivalent
- the rise and fall of multiple constitutions or equivalents in the country's relevant modern history and reasons for the changes
- the current constitutional structure, including constitutions of constituent units if they exist and other pertinent charters or organic laws
- the principal rationales or ideologies underlying the constitutional structure
- the theories and/or models (if any) used by the constitution's framers,
- the institutions established and processes set in motion by the constitution
- the contents of the constitution, including divided and/or concurrent powers
- the nature and processes of constitutional interpretation and change
- assessment of the constitutional structure, including current controversies and debates.
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Global Dialogue is a joint project of the Forum of Federations and the International Association of Centers of Federal Studies.
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