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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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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Comparative Federalism and Law- Published:
- 03 October 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2443-2
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Comparative Federalism and Law- Published:
- 07 June 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2443-1