Comparing Federal Systems

Provides a clear analysis of the design and operation of a wide range of federations

Offers an analysis of the design and operation of a range of federations. This edition encompasses reference to a range of federations and federal experiments including mature federations such as the United States of America; emergent federations such as Mexico; post-conflict federal experiments such as Bosnia, and federations that have failed.Countries studied include the United States, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, and Germany as examples of developed industrial societies; India and Malaysia as examples of multilingual and multicultural federations; Belgium and Spain as examples of emerging federal systems that illustrate bicommunal and asymmetrical approaches; and Czechoslovakia and Pakistan as examples of bicommunal federations that have failed. Watts compares the interaction of social diversity and political institutions, distribution of powers and finances, processes contributing to flexibility or rigidity in adjustment, extent of internal symmetry or asymmetry, degree of centralization and decentralization, character of representation in federal institutions, role of constitutions and courts, provisions for constitutional rights and secession, and pathology in federations.