On behalf of the Steering Committee, I would like to welcome all of you to the International Conference on Federalism 2002. Some of you have travelled great distances to meet here in St Gallen for four days to discuss current issues of federalism and to learn from each other. We would like to thank you most cordially for your interest and willingness to participate actively in the conference. I hope you will understand that with so many prominent people present from both Switzerland and abroad I will not be able to welcome each of them individually. However, I do wish...

In the contemporary world In the contemporary world, federalism as a political idea has become increasingly important as a way of peacefully reconciling unity and diversity within a political system.

The reasons for this can be found in the changing nature of the world leading to simultaneous pressures for both larger states and also for smaller ones. Modern developments in transportation, social communications, technology, industrial organisation, globalisation and knowledge-based, and hence learning societies, have all contributed to this trend. Thus, there have developed two powerful, thoroughly interdependent, yet distinct and often actually opposed motives: the desire to build dynamic and...

“International relations are like a game of billiards”. This is how one observer described the old world of sovereign states. According to the commentator in question, national lawyers were concerned with the internal structure of the billiard balls while international lawyers dealt with their interactions. But when the matter is examined in terms of the interplay between federalism and foreign policy, it is clear that this image does not reflect the modern reality. The purpose of my presentation is to show that we need new philosophies, new theories and new concepts if we are to come to terms with the...

It is trite that multicultural societies are a feature of the late twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. This is not because multicultural societies are new, although the phenomenon of multiculturalism may also be growing and changing through population movements of various kinds. Rather, it is because of the greater prominence of the multicultural character of societies. This in turn is a response to a variety of factors. One is the end of the Cold War, and the relaxation of the somewhat macabre discipline that it imposed upon the world. Another is the greater consciousness of racism, associated with...

Both in the industrialised and developing world, moves are afoot for the decentralisation of government in the hope of improving the performance of the public sector. Such moves toward? “devolution” are justified both in political terms as a means to bring policy making closer to the people to enhance democratic processes, and in economic terms as a way to adapt public outputs to local tastes and circumstances. But the real issue here cannot be one simply of centralisation versus decentralisation. The public sector by necessity involves different levels of decision making, and the question here involves the proper alignment of...

For a long time, international relations were synonymous with relations between sovereign states with clearly defined national borders, where the nation state was the principal actor in foreign affairs. The basic principles of this world of states were national sovereignty, and deriving from it, the equality of states, dieir immunity, and the prohibition of intervention (Thürer, 2001). For the state, the fact that sovereignty constituted its claim to power meant that it could take decisions independently of other states, both towards foreign states in matters pertaining to international law, and in relation to itself in matters concerning the shape given...

Constituent diplomacy, that is the participation of regional and local governments in foreign policy making and international affairs, is now an institutionalised characteristic of democratic federal polities. It also occurs in a growing number of quasi-federal countries such as Spain, in non-federal countries such as Japan, and even in some non-democratic countries such as the People’s Republic of China. It is likely that constituent diplomacy will become a characteristic of nearly all nation states during the twentyfirst century. Key factors that have given rise to constituent diplomacy are democratisation, human rights, market liberalisation, inter-governmentalisation, decentralisation, United States policies, technological innovation,...

The past 50 years has seen two phenomena occur in global governance. The unprecedented growth in international trade and cooperation, particularly in Europe and North America, has been accompanied by a renewed interest in the federal idea to the extent that around a third of the world’s population now lives in a federal state. One result of these developments is the increasingly blurred distinction between the international and the domestic, a fact that is emphasised by an increasing tendency of sub-national units to engage in activities beyond the borders of the nation state. The work sessions upon which this paper...

The scope for sub-national units to develop foreign relations is very different in various federal states. However, the discussion demonstrated that it is wise to make a distinction between more formal agreements and informal arrangements (arte di arrangiarsi). While Article 1, Section 10 of the United States constitution says that states shall not enter into agreements with other states or sub-national units without the consent of Congress, it was not entirely clear to me to what extent this provision also relates to more flexible forms of cooperation based on memorandums of understanding, conferences etc. There seems to be a certain...

Almost 95% of people in the world today live in multicultural states, fragmented into different cultural communities. Forty percent of these people live in federal states. The others are in unitary states with greater or lesser degrees of decentralisation. Multiculturalism has become a challenge for most states in our world with divided and fragmented societies. Particularly after the fall of the Berlin Wall they have to cope with problems and conflicts that were formerly overshadowed by the potential for conflict between capitalism and communism, which split mankind into two worlds. In a “glocalised” international order, the question that now confronts...

As the twenty-first century opened, analysts were able to point out that the nature of human conflict had profoundly changed, both in regard to its form and its subject matter. Whereas the previous century opened with inter-state wars – wars between sovereign states – by the 1990s the overwhelming majority of conflicts classified as “major armed conflicts” were intra-state conflicts. Between 1989 and 1996, for example, 95 of the 101 armed conflicts identified in the world were internal, and the vast majority had an “identity” component to them (Harris and Reilly, 1998, 1-10). Identity-driven conflicts are conflicts based on the moblisation of...

Constitution making and nation building in multicultural societies is in fact an issue of state building. The authors of the Theme II Paper rightly say that the critical challenge can be defined as “finding a political compromise between two sources that results in an institutional equilibrium” (see Fleiner, Kalin, Linder, Saunders, Part C). Given that “state making does not axiomatically or mechanically lead to building of a nation” (see Haysom, Part C), this political compromise has to be reached at a constitutive, state-building level. The nature and even viability of pouvoir constituant for multiethnic societies is a major stake. The...

Some of you will be wondering what I am doing here, since obviously you are all experts on federalism and I am not. But I have good credentials–after 30 years in development work, I have a great deal of experience in telling experts what they should be doing. Or maybe I was invited because I am a woman and therefore have some experience of being treated like an oppressed minority. I certainly have some experience in addressing such problems. So perhaps I am in the right place after all.

Let me briefly summarise some of the important points from...

Over the past 30 years, a clear trend has emerged worldwide towards the decentralisation of spending and revenue-raising responsibilities to subnational levels of government (states, regions, provinces, cantons, Länder) and to the third tier (the local, communal, municipal level). For Ter-Minassian (1997, 3), “this trend is evident not only in federal, but also in many unitary countries, including some that have a long tradition of centralist government”. Political developments in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (the countries in transition and the Balkans), together with recent discussions in the European Union (EU), and new trends in Latin America, Asia and Africa,...

Federal systems are characterised by a large degree of decentralisation of the public sector, which consists of at least two levels of government, each vested with well-defined competencies and financial resources. Federalism is more than just decentralised administration. The all-important feature is that the governments at the individual levels make decisions regarding public policies and resources in their own area of responsibility and according to their own preferences (Riker, 1964).

The assignment of public responsibilities (or competencies) and revenues to the different levels of government is a key question of federalism. It can be discussed from various perspectives. The classic...

A central issue in the theory of economic federalism is the assignment of competencies to different tiers of government. Scholars of fiscal federalism usually aim at providing convincing arguments for a specific assignment of public services and taxes to the federal, regional and local levels of government. The bottom line of their reasoning is that public services should be allocated to the different levels so that the citizens obtaining benefits from, those paying the costs of, and those deciding on public services belong to the same group (Olson, 1969; Gates, 1972). Distortions arise if citizens from other jurisdictions do not...

There has been a profound resurgence of interest in the federal idea in the last decade. I choose the phrase “federal idea” carefully because the “ism” in federalism has a way of limiting debate and understanding. In Spain, the central government is reluctant to use the word because it seems to connote the dissolution of sovereign authority; conversely the Catalonians won’t use it because in their eyes it does not sufficiently represent the unique nature of the Catalan claim to self-government. In South Africa the word fell into disrepute because it had some official approval from the apartheid government; similarly...

On behalf of the Federal Council I would like to bid you a warm welcome to Switzerland and to St Gallen. It is a great honour for our country over the days ahead to welcome so many state and government heads, ministers, politicians and academics from over Go countries for a discussion on federalism.

I regard federalism as an important structural principle for a modern state. In a country with a variety of languages and cultures, it may even be an indispensable structural principle. Switzerland accordingly warmly welcomed Canada’s initiative in holding the first international conference on federalism three years...

For two weeks now, we have been witnessing a new solidarity among the people of Germany. The disastrous flooding has galvanised many individuals, and they are not just thinking about those in need but are also lending a helping hand. We are also experiencing an outpouring of international readiness to help. From America, from England, from Russia, from Switzerland, from the Principality of Liechtenstein–from all over the world people are coming to assist us. Before I begin my remarks on federalism here today, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all who are standing by us during...

Switzerland and federalism are inseparable. Without its federal system, Switzerland would be a different country. The Switzerland we know today was only made possible by the conscious decision to forgo an all-powerful central government and to devolve power and responsibility. Federalism is a radical idea and an incredibly successful one. For me therefore, the International Conference on Federalism 2002 has a special meaning: it istheconference this year in Switzerland. And the fact that it is taking place in St Gallen rather than in the federal capital, Bern, is a conscious expression of Switzerland's conviction about federalism.

I am...

One of the most troublesome complexities of a federal system is the necessity of deciding upon the separate competencies–and resolving conflicts between the separate competences–of the federal government and the separate component states. As Europe is on the verge of experimenting with federalism, it may profit from the experience of the United States.

As you know, in the United States, the federal government derives all of its authority from a document, only a few pages long, written over 200 years ago. The powers possessed by the federal government are limited to those enumerated in that constitution. The founders...

Qhi dehuá. Good afternoon. This greeting in my native language not only means “good afternoon” but also, “as you leave, God has also left”. In my Ñhañhú culture, we believe that God dwells in each human being. This leads us to respect each other more. Another belief is that virtually no one goes to Hell. And this is most reassuring: as a result we do not fear Hell. The only people who may end up there are those who accumulate and do not share. Our sense of community involves a very strong notion of solidarity.

I wish to thank the...

Allow me first of all to sincerely thank the Swiss authorities and the organisers of this conference for the kind invitation extended to me, to share with you some thoughts inspired by the Malian experience in the field of decentralisation and good governance.

The choice of St Gallen and Switzerland as host of the International Conference on Federalism 2002 is not fortuitous. Actually, Switzerland is among the most ancient federations in the world, and its cultural and linguistic diversity is universally recognised.

Decentralisation, governance, and federalism constitute major issues in this dawning century, because they convey a message of democracy,...

The very fact that a large part of mankind, nearly one half of it, lives in federal government systems speaks for itself about the advantages of this system when it comes to compound and diversified state unions, whatever the differences within them might be – social and historic, cultural or ethnic. However, despite a wide variety of approaches, researchers of federalism will agree upon one thing – the value of federalism is relative rather than absolute. In other words, the value of a federal solution is to be discussed on a case-by-case basis. Or, as John Stuart Mill would have it in...

Let me first of all express my appreciation to our Swiss hosts for the excellent organisation of this conference and in particular for the very substantial preparatory work. You have set a standard that will be hard to match for any future conference on this important and complex topic.

The Conference Reader alone could serve as a standard text on federalism in all its aspects and it makes abundantly clear why this model of governance has proved so successful. Yet it also underlines why in practice no two cases are the same: any federal structure is the result of an...

It is quite a paradox that federal states have been in existence for at least 200 years, but that, as far as I know, it is only in the last few years that these federal states have decided to meet each other as federal states in an organisation to promote federalism, and to exchange knowledge and experiences on the subject. So I am more than ever convinced that it was an excellent idea on the part of the Canadian authorities to launch the Forum Federations four years ago.

Let me also congratulate former president Arnold Roller and his team for...

Thank you for your kind introduction, which is more than I deserve. And thank you, everyone, for inviting me to take part. I have many friends here, some of whom are accustomed to hearing me speak in another language, like my friend Prime Minister Chrétien.

But I very much appreciate the fact that you have asked me to speak in Italian – a perfect example of Swiss federalism in action. Before I begin, let me tell you a little story. During one working session of the current European Convention, a Convention member expressed the opinion that Europe could never become a...

During the last three days I have had the great privilege of meeting and interacting with several Heads of State, Heads of Government, elected representatives, civil servants, academics, private sector and non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives, and youth leaders from a large number of countries. It has been a unique experience for me and I must say it was highly rewarding. If we are here today at this Plenary at the end of a successful International Conference on Federalism in this beautiful University of St Gallen, it is thanks to the Swiss government’s commitment made at Mont-Tremblant in Canada’s Quebec Province...

The four days of this conference on federalism have made this very clear. I am delighted to be taking part in this final session with you today.

“Learning from Each Other through Dialogue”: the subtitle of this conference perfectly sums up what has been achieved in the work sessions over the last three days, and what we have heard from the three work session speakers in the plenary session.

“Learning from Each Other through Dialogue”: I am convinced that the opportunity to share your own experiences with others will also have deepened your understanding of your own situation, of your...

As Prime Minister of Canada, I am honoured to be here in St Gallen. I am pleased to see that the objective I initially set in 1999 at Mont-Tremblant has once again been achieved. Representatives of the world’s federations, new and more traditional, have come together to share experiences and insights, and to gain a better understanding of the richness of the theory and the practice of federalism.

I would like to share a few thoughts with you today on current Canadian realities in respect of one of your three conference themes: fiscal federalism.

As a theory of government, federalism...