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Comparative Federalism and Law

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Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Federal systems; Federations; Intergovernmental relations; Judicial review

Definition

A federal system of government is one where sovereignty is constitutionally shared and powers divided between an overarching central government and the governments of a set of constituent units, each of which enjoys a direct relationship with the people.

Introduction

Federal systems of government, in the modern sense, have been in existence for over two centuries now – at least as long as the world has experienced liberal democracy – and historical antecedents go back much further. Federal systems of government also make up a good share of modern liberal democracies, particularly of the larger ones. With their attempt to use constitutional rules to enforce a system of shared rule they constitute a distinctive form of government, at least in principle fundamentally different from unitary systems, however decentralized those might be.

Federalism thus makes an important subject of study and the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, 6845, Perth, WA, Australia

    Alan Fenna

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  1. Alan Fenna
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Correspondence to Alan Fenna .

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  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Fenna, A. (2016). Comparative Federalism and Law. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2443-2

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Comparative Federalism and Law
    Published:
    03 October 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2443-2

  2. Original

    Comparative Federalism and Law
    Published:
    07 June 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2443-1

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