Argentina is located in the southern cone of South America, stretching over an area of almost 2.8 million square kilometres and encompassing several very diverse geographical regions. The population of the country is just under 38 million.

The first Spanish settlement in the territories of what is now Argentina dates back to 1526. What was to become Argentina’s main port and city, Buenos Aires, was founded in 1536 but due to repeated attacks by the native population was abandoned until 1580 when it was re-established. The colonization of the territory was mostly undertaken from neighbouring countries in the north.

The...

Australia was settled as a series of British colonies between 1788 and 1829. By that time, aboriginal peoples had inhabited the area for at least 50,000 years. Between 1850 and 1891 six separate self-governing colonies emerged, each with a constitution and institutions of government of its own. Throughout this period there also was some pressure for union, for economic, defence and other purposes. The final and most serious phase of the federation movement took place during the 1890s. The terms of federation and of the constitution on which it was based were negotiated in two major constitutional conventions in 1891...

The Austrian Republic is a central European state (83,858 km²) with 8.1 million inhabitants (2002). It is the successor state of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918), which was a multinational empire, but had no federal structure. In 1918 Emperor Charles I, who ruled Austria from 1916–18, promised that he would introduce federalism in order to accommodate the diverse aspirations of the nationalities living in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. His manifesto to the peoples of Austria (Völkermanifest) came, however, too late to have any practical consequences. It was not proclaimed until the last few weeks of the First World War and...

Belgium is a small – 32,545 km² – West European democracy with a population of just over 10 million. The country’s defining political feature is its multilingual character. Belgium’s northern half, Flanders, is home to the bulk of the country’s Dutch-speakers (almost 6 million; referred to as “Flemish”) while the south, Wallonia (3.3 million), is French-speaking. This linguistic picture is complicated by the presence of a tiny German-speaking population in the southeast (70,000 people) and by Brussels (1 million), which is located north of the linguistic frontier but is predominantly French. Tensions between linguistic groups have been a central feature...

The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (51,209 km²) is located in southeastern Europe. It borders Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and has a very narrow (20 km) access to the Adriatic Sea. The territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the site of many conquests – Roman, Goth, Slav, Hungarian and Ottoman, among others. In the twelfth century, Bosnia became a Hungarianbanat(province). In 1376 Ban Stephen Tvrtko proclaimed himself King of Serbia and Bosnia. After his death, the kingdom disintegrated and by 1463, the Ottoman Empire had conquered most of Bosnia. It would remain an Ottoman province for the next...

With a total area of over 8,500,000 km², the Federative Republic of Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. Its population is more than 170 million inhabitants (census 2000), and it has a Gross Domestic Product (gdp) of around US$470 billion (2003 estimate). Brazil has historically been characterized by major social and economic disparities and its pattern of inter-governmental relations, even before the institution of federalism, has evolved through alternating phases of centralization and decentralization. The Brazilian federation encompasses three levels of government: the Union; 26 states plus the Federal District; and over 5,500 municipalities.

Although its formal...

Canada is a parliamentary democracy. The head of state is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, represented in Canada by the Governor-General at the federal level, and Lieutenant-Governors provincially. The country has a land mass of more than 9 million km², spanning five time zones. Its population is almost 31 million people, most of whom live in cities and towns stretched along a narrow band just north of the US border.

Canada is the product of the 1867 union of three British colonies in “British North America”: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the united Province of Canada. (The United Province of...

The Comoros archipelago includes four islands in the southwest Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the east coast of Africa. Grande Comoros (Njazidja), Anjouan (Nzwani) and Moheli (Mwali) form the Union of the Comoros (formerly the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros). A fourth island, Mayotte, remains under French administration.

The population of Comoros is just under 600,000 in an area of about 2,000 km², which means that the average density is nearly 300 inhabitants per square kilometre. Eighty per cent of the population live in rural areas. Migration and intermarriage have mixed Malaysians, Persians, Arabs and Cafres, and the original...

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (appoximately 1,127,000 km²) is located at the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Sudan on the west, Kenya on the south, Somalia and Djibouti on the east, and Eritrea on the north. It has a population of some 67 million inhabitants, about 90 per cent of whom earn their living from the land, mainly as subsistence farmers. Agriculture is the backbone of the national economy. The country has a Gross National Product (gnp) per capita of just US$90, making it the poorest country in the world in 2003, according to the World Bank....

Federalism is one of the key features of the political system of Germany. This is based on historical foundations and was re-established in the post-World War II situation. Before political unification in 1871 (at which time the German Empire under Prussian leadership was established), “Germany” consisted of a patchwork of states. These states formed the “Old Empire” (Altes Reich) with a common institution, the so-calledImmerwährender Reichstagin Regensburg (1663–1806), composed of representatives of the respective territories. Its major features were power-sharing, bargaining and compromise-seeking.

Following the dissolution of that Empire in 1806, 39 territories formed, under Napoleon’s protectorate,...

India covers an area of 3.28 million square kilometres. With a population of 1,048 million (2002), India is a country of a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, languages and cultures. It has 28 states and seven union territories (uts) (including Delhi, the National Capital Territory), which differ greatly in terms of their natural resources, administrative capacity and economic performance. The country continues to have a high concentration of poverty. According to estimates in 1999–2000 there are 260 million (26 per cent of the total population) people below the poverty line. In 2000–01, however, India was able to achieve...

The Federation of Malaysia is composed of 13 states and three Federal Territories.¹ It is located on the Malay Peninsula at the southeastern tip of continental Asia and along the northern part of the Island of Borneo. The federation evolved from the pattern of British rule, which was based on treaties with Malay sultanate states. Four of the Malay states joined in a federation in 1896, while five states remained “unfederated.” In the colonial period the British also ruled directly three colonies – Singapore, Melaka and Penang – and exercised indirect colonial rule over the Borneo states of Sarawak and...

Ever since 1810, when Mexico became an independent country, tensions between the states and the centre have dominated the political landscape. Indeed, the war of independence started in the states as a reaction to the excesses of a powerful central government. The precarious equilibrium between the centre and the periphery in Mexico has been crystallized in the different constitutions that have been drafted since independence.

The first constitution, the Constitutión de Cádiz of 1812, was modelled after the Spanish system and defined two institutions at the regional level: municipal and state governments. Municipal governments were elected, but the state governments...

Micronesia is a collection of island groups in the Pacific Ocean comprised of four major clusters: the Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls, and Gilberts (now known as Kiribati). The Federated States of Micronesia (fsm) is part of the Caroline island archipelago. The fsm consists of the island groups of Chuuk (formerly Truk), Yap, Pohnpei (formerly Ponape) and Kosrae – it is thus a subset of Micronesia writ large. The total land area of the fsm is approximately 700 km, but the islands are spread over 2.5 million km. It has a population of approximately 108,000 people.

The history of Micronesia is one...

Nigeria is a federal republic in West Africa. With an estimated population of about 130 million people, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. It spans an area of just under 925,000 square kilometres and has a landmass extending inland from the eastern end of the Gulf of Guinea deep into the western savannah. Nigeria lies between the Cameroon on the east and the Republic of Benin on the west; to the north is Niger and to the northeast is Chad. Although the country is rich in mineral resources – particularly oil – the per capita income in Nigeria...

Pakistan sits at a srategic location, situated as it is at the conjuncture between the Middle East and Asia. Its neighbours are India to the east, the central Asian republics and China to the north, Afghanistan and Iran to the West, and the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean to the south. The country has an area of 879,902 km² and a population of over 140 million people.

The territory comprising Pakistan today encompasses the Indus Valley civilization and, thus, is an entity with ancient roots. For most of the past 4,000–5,000 years the Indus Valley has remained a...

The Russian Federation is the world’s largest federal state (17,075,000 km²). A vast country, spanning two continents and 11 time zones, it is home to approximately 145 million people. With a population of more than 8 million, Russia’s capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in Europe. Although ethnic Russians constitute a majority (80%) of the country’s population and Russian is the official state language, the Russian Federation contains over 100 distinct nationalities and ethnic groups. A number of these national groups are territorially based and have the political authority to preserve and promote their respective cultures and languages....

The islands of St. Kitts (168 km²) and Nevis (93 km²) are located in the Lesser Antilles chain of islands in the Eastern Caribbean. They are separated by a channel of just over three kilometres.

The islands were inhabited first by the Sibonay who arrived approximately 2,000 years ago from Central America. They were followed by the Arawak and then the Caribs who both came north from South America. The first European to record the presence of the islands was Christopher Columbus in November 1493. He named the islands San Cristobel (St. Christopher), after his patron saint, and Santa Maria...

Although not an old country by any standard, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (fry) has had a very turbulent history. The country has survived long dominance by foreign powers and, in the twentieth century, it passed four constitutions and two sets of major constitutional amendments in less than 75 years. The country called Yugoslavia has also changed names, its size and the number of federal units which comprise it. It even disappeared off the map during World War II.

The peoples of the area were ruled by foreign powers from the mid-1400s until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after...

South Africa is located at the very southern tip of the African continent and dominates the southern African region. Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique are its immediate neighbours, whilst South Africa entirely surrounds Swaziland and Lesotho. The country occupies 1,219,090 km², and is inhabited by approximately 43 million people. As of the 1990s, the population was approximately 75.2% black, 13.6% white, 8.6% coloured and 2.6% Indian. Federalism has had a highly contested reception in South Africa and this continues to be so, given its historically deeply divided polity.

Four British territories – the Cape Colony and Natal (formerly under British...

The Kingdom of Spain (504,750 km²) is located in the southwestern part of the European continent, on the Iberian Peninsula. Its population for 2003 was just over 40 million. The country’s current configuration dates back to 1492, when the last Muslim kingdom fell in Granada. From 711 until 1492, a period known as theReconquista,Christian and Islamic forces were locked in a battle over control of the territory. During this period, Spain was a series of kingdoms, two of the most powerful of which, Castile and Aragón, were united in 1469 with the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragón and...

Switzerland is a country of 7.2 million inhabitants in the middle of Europe. Its neighbours are Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy and France. It has been a federation since 1848, and its federal institutions have meant that the country has been able to accommodate diversity politically. Historically, the 26 cantons and the approximately 3,000 communes were able to develop their own traditions and cultures so that Switzerland had and still has cultural, cantonal and communal diversity. Switzerland as a country did not attempt to homogenize its population nor did it split according to linguistic, religious, or cultural lines, although some cantons...

The United Ara Emirates (83,600 km²) is situated on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The country is bordered by Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, and its territory includes 200 islands.

It is unclear when this area was first inhabited. Archaeological discoveries suggest that settlements may have been established as early as the fifth millennium bc. Arab migration along the South Arabian coast in the first centuries ad and subsequent movement from the north brought a mix of Arab tribes to the area.

In the early sixteenth century Portuguese traders represented the first European challenge...

With independence in 1776 the American colonies formed a confederation. Without a strong central government, however, centrifugal forces soon began to pull the states apart. Instead of working together, some states began coining their own money and erecting trade barriers, and the state governments were too weak on their own to ensure the rule of law. These problems seemed to be a result of shortcomings in the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. It was to address these issues that a convention was held in Philadelphia in 1787. The result was a new constitution that has survived to this day....

The Republic of Venezuela is located in the northernmost section of South America. It is the seventh largest country in Latin America, with an area of 912,050 km² and just over 25 million inhabitants. The territory is divided into 23 states, a Capital District that covers part of Caracas, and Federal Dependencies comprised of a number of islands located in the Caribbean Sea. Its economy has been greatly influenced by the presence of oil.¹

In 1777, after three centuries of Spanish colonization, the seven provinces that later comprised the Venezuelan territory were grouped into the General Captaincy of Venezuela. In...

Since the end of the Second World War, the federal model has been a fascinating ideal for Europeans. But the European Union (eu) is not, and is unlikely to become within reasonable terms, a federal state. Nonetheless, some federal features have already characterized European integration and these features are likely to affect the eu to a greater extent if the “Draft Treaty for establishing a Constitution for Europe,” aimed at reorganizing the whole eu institutional system, is approved within the next months. In attempting to demonstrate these assertions, this article will first give a brief account of the evolution of...

As the country articles in this handbook indicate, there are as many different federal arrangements as there are federal countries. The ideas of federalism (and the political arrangements that embody them), are not rigid or static, they are in constant evolution, both within federal countries, and in the world at large. It is this flexibility that makes federalism so attractive for divided societies, and has made it popular to talk about the utility of adopting federal systems in post-conflict countries – Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Sudan, for example.

At first glance, all four of the above countries would appear...