Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Federalism fad

How is federalism a solution to some problems and the cause of others? Is there an inherent conflict between federalism and democracy? Is the price of federal "unity" worth the cost of some democracy? (Discuss among yourselves.)

The fashion to be federal

WHAT short rallying-cry sums up the hopes of people who risk their lives—anywhere from Tunis to Cairo to Rangoon—because they believe in free, universal suffrage? In years past, it was “one man, one vote”. That slogan was heard in apartheid South Africa, and in the 1960s in Northern Ireland, where Catholics said a property-based vote for local councils favoured Protestants.

The formula has since been corrected to “one person one vote” (OPOV, as wonks call it)—and the ideal itself has been challenged. Among campaigners for political change, it is agreed that universal suffrage is not enough to give power to the people. Other things, like the rule of law, are needed too. And less obviously, most federal systems violate the OPOV principle by giving some votes more weight than others. That is important because over a third of humanity lives in countries that aspire to be both democratic and federal…

According to Rupak Chattopadhyay, a Canadian scholar, federations (and the constitutional anomalies that go with them) are desirable in countries that are large or ethnically mixed or both…

Why is the tie between federalism and democracy so awkward? In most federations the units have formally equal status, regardless of population, so voters in small units fare better. Thus the 544,270 residents of Wyoming have two senators—the same as the 37m people of California…

As research at Queen’s University Belfast has shown, large deviations from OPOV are the norm in newly democratic federations, including ex-war zones where outsiders have designed systems to hold divided societies together. These systems are often very contentious. Iraq’s constitution is decentralising enough to please Shia and Kurdish voters, but anathema to the once-dominant Sunni Muslims…

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Labels: concepts, devolution, federalism, theory