Comparative politics definition
Federations are diverse in form, purpose, and practice.Įlazar, Daniel J. Rather than accept a single, general theory of federalism’s origins, Burgess proposes a theory of circumstantial causation of federations that embraces a wide variety of internal and external factors. New York: Routledge, 2006.īurgess’s text treats federalism and federations broadly, from intellectual and empirical origins, to close studies of several federations in operation, to analysis of federal-system failure and success. Comparative Federalism: Theory and Practice. A system of redundant and complementary safeguards is necessary for a federation that is robust and adaptive.īurgess, Michael. Defiance of constitutional boundaries is to be expected, and no single institutional safeguard is sufficient to ensure compliance. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.Ī general theory of federalism that is based on the incentives that the federal structure creates for the component parts. Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions. The Robust Federation: Principles of Design.
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This article focuses primarily on the positive literature.īednar, Jenna. Hueglin and Fenna 2006 and Elazar 1987 capture well the philosophy of thought that underpins the concept of federalism. The study of federalism is also normative: as seen in Ostrom 2008, Elazar 1987, and Burgess 2006, the theories characterize the relationship between the people and their government, and the way that federalism builds and accommodates diverse values and identities. Positive political theory also captures the effect of federalism on other political or economic activities, such as the production of policy, the extent of citizens’ political participation, or the shape of the party system. Positive analyses characterize the federal system, make predictions about what the system might achieve, formulate hypotheses about what causes a federal system to perform well or poorly, and measure empirical outcomes (e.g., Wheare 1946 Riker 1964 Filippov, et al. The study of federalism is both normative and positive, often within the same work.
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Political scientists and those in closely related disciplines, particularly economics and law, continue to search for an understanding of optimal constitutional design and the dynamics of federal systems in practice.
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In this article, we concentrate on two aspects of the literature on comparative federalism: the postulated benefits of federalism and theories to explain its inconsistent performance.Īs a field, political science has been working on (and arguing about) an understanding of what federalism might achieve and under what conditions it might be successful since Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and especially James Madison wrote under the pseudonym Publius ( Publius 1787–1788). Hence, adopting the federal form is an important constitutional decision with significant-and sometimes surprising-consequences. The system effects are complex and often unexpected. Federal systems vary widely in construction, in purpose, and in practice. Uniting these diverse fields is a common interest in federalism as a system of government, adopted for a purpose, and failing or meeting aspirations. The comparative study of federations is broad, ranging from internal fiscal arrangements to economic performance to political representation and identity. Federalism is a system of government that sits uneasily between a unitary government with administrative decentralization and a confederacy composed of independent states that choose to coordinate their activity in some realms, such as defense or trade.