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Federalism

Political concept

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Johannes Althusius (1563–1638) is considered the father of modern federalism, along with Montesquieu. By 1748, in his treatise The Spirit of Law, Montesquieu (1689–1755) observed various examples of federalist governments: in corporate societies, in the polis bringing villages together, and in cities themselves forming confederations. In the modern era, federalism was first adopted by a union of the states of the Old Swiss Confederacy as of the mid-14th century.

Federalism differs from confederalism, where the central government is created subordinate to the regional states—and is notable for its regional separation of governing powers (e.g., in the United States, the Articles of Confederation as the general level of government of the original Thirteen Colonies). Federalism also differs from the unitary state, where the regional level is subordinate to the central government, even after a devolution of powers (e.g., the United Kingdom).

Examples of federalisms today include: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Iraq, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. At a multi-state level, the European Union has been characterized by some as a federation.

Overview

Etymology

The terms "federalism" and "confederalism" share a root in the Latin word foedus, meaning "treaty, pact or covenant". Until the late eighteenth century their two early meanings were essentially the same: a simple league among sovereign states, based on a treaty; (thus, initially the two were synonyms). It was in this sense that James Madison referred to the new US Constitution as "neither a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both"—i.e., constituting neither a single large unitary state nor a league/confederation among several small states, but a hybrid of the two forms—according to Madison; "The Federalist No. 39".

Notably, in the course of the nineteenth century in the United States, the meaning of federalism shifted, now referring uniquely to the novel compound-political form established at the Philadelphia Constitution Convention—while the meaning of confederalism remained as a league of states.

History

In a narrow sense, federalism refers to the mode in which the body politic of a state is organized internally—and this is the meaning most often used in modern times. Political scientists, however, use the term federalism in a much broader sense, referring instead to a "multi-layer or pluralistic concept of social and political life".

The first forms of federalism took place in ancient times, in the form of alliances between tribes or city states. According to historian Joseph Baratta, his colleagues generally begin the history of federalism with the Israelite tribal confederacy led by a military leader called a Judge between c.1200 – c.1000 BCE. Examples from the Hellenic world between the seventh to second century BCE were the Archaic League, the Aetolic League, the Peloponnesian League, and the Delian League. An early ancestor of federalism was the Achaean League in Hellenistic Greece. Unlike the Greek city states of Classical Greece, each of which insisted on keeping its complete independence, changing conditions in the Hellenistic period drove city states to band together even at the cost of surrendering part of their sovereignty. Several leagues of states existed in the contemporary China. Subsequent unions of states included the first and second Swiss Confederations (1291–1798 and 1815–48); the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1579–1795); the German Confederation (1815–66); the first American union, known as the Confederation of the United States of America (1781–89); and the second American union, formed as the United States of America (1789-present).

Political theory

Modern federalism is a political system that (nominally) is based upon operating under democratic rules and institutions; and where governing powers are shared between a country's national and provincial/state governments. However, the term federalist comprises various political practices that differ in important details among the (so-called) federalist nations—some of which are democratic in name only (e.g., modern Russia)—leaving the terms "federalist", "federalism", "federation", etc., dependent on context. And, because the term federalization also proclaims distinctive political processes, its use also depends on context.

Typically, political theory today discusses two main types of the federalization process:

  • integrative, (or aggregative) federalization, which encompasses several political processes, including: 1) transforming a confederation into a federation; 2) incorporating non-federated population(s) into an existing federation; or 3) integrating a non-federated population by creating a new or revised federation.
  • devolutive, (or dis-aggregative) federalization: 1) transforming a unitary state into a federation.

Reasons for adoption

According to Daniel Ziblatt, there are four competing theoretical explanations for adopting a federal system:

  1. Ideational theories, which hold: that among subunit population(s), a greater ideological commitment to decentralist ideas makes federalism more likely to be sought and adopted.
  2. Cultural-historical theories: that in societies with culturally or ethnically fragmented populations, federalized subunits are more likely to be favored and adopted.
  3. "Social contract" theories: that federalism emerges via a bargaining process between the center and a periphery (subunit)—where the center is not powerful enough to dominate the periphery, but the periphery is not powerful enough to secede from the center, (e.g., modern Iraq re Kurdistan).
  4. "Infrastructural power" theories: that federalism is likely to emerge for the subunit population that already has highly developed infrastructures, (e.g., they already are a constitutional, parliamentary, and administratively modernized state).

Immanuel Kant noted that "the problem of setting up a state can be solved even by a nation of devils"—if they possess a constitution that pits opposing factions against each other with a durable system of binding checks and balances. Essentially, particular states may use federation as a mechanism (a safeguard) against the possibilities of rebellion or war—or the rise of repressive government via a would-be dictator or a centralized oligarchy.

Proponents of federal systems have historically argued that the structures of checks-and-balances and power-sharing that are inherent in a federal system reduces threats—both foreign and domestic. And federalism enables a state to be both large and diverse, by mitigating the risk of a central government turning tyrannical.

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