Comparing Federal Systems

There is much that can be learned by Canadians from the experience of federations elsewhere. At present there are twenty-four federations in the world -- representing over forty per cent of the world's population -- comprising a variety of forms and variations. In this updated second edition Ronald Watts provides a clear analysis of the design and operation of a sample of federations chosen for their relevance to Canadian issues.

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.