1st Edition

Federalism, Plurinationality and Democratic Constitutionalism Theory and Cases

Edited By Ferran Requejo, Miquel Caminal Badia Copyright 2012
    410 Pages
    by Routledge

    392 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book provides a theoretical and comparative analysis of federalism and federations in plurinational democracies, examining how states with distinct peoples and communities coexist (or not).

    Through a theoretical approach to democracy and federalism, and interdisciplinary analysis of plurinationality in state organization, including case studies of the UK, Russia, Canada, Belgium, India, Spain, Switzerland and Bolivia, this text assesses the possibilities and limits of federalism as a way to recognize and accommodate multinationalism in plurinational democracies. It evaluates a range of strategies used by states to support national, ethnic, linguistic or religious collectives in present-day liberal democracies. Leading scholars in the field evaluate the institutional and practical repercussions regarding the issue of recognition and accommodation of national minorities in a globalised world, through different theoretical perspectives to build up a detailed picture of problems and solutions to multinationalism. Looking both within and beyond the state, this is an invaluable examination of dilemmas and institutional challenges faced by many modern democracies.

    Federalism, Plurinationality and Democratic Constitutionalism will be of interest to students, researchers and scholars of democracy, nationalism, federalism and constitutionalism.

    1. Introduction: Democracy and Federalism in Plurinational Societies Ferran Requejo and Miquel Caminal Part 1 2. Territorial Pluralism: Its Forms, Flaws and Virtues John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary 3. The Unfreedom of the Moderns in the Post-9/11 Age of Constitutionalism and Imperialism Michael Simpson and James Tully 4. The Moral Foundations of Asymmetrical Federalism: Normative Considerations Alain Gagnon and Guy Laforest 5. The Lack of National Pluralism in Federal Theory and Federations: Plurinational Federalism in a Comparative and Value Pluralist Approach Ferran Requejo Part 2 6. Canada – A Territorial or a Multinational Federation? Philip Resnick 7. Belgian Federalism: Means to an End? Wilfried Swenden 8. India: Unity in Diversity through an Evolving Federalism George Mathew 9. The United Kingdom as a Multinational State Stephen Tierney 10. Multi-Lingual but Mono-National Exploring and Explaining Switzerland’s Exceptionalism Paolo Dardanelli 11. The Spanish "Estado de las Autonomías": Between Nationalist Resistance and Federal Horizon Miquel Caminal

    Biography

    Ferran Requejo is Professor of Political Science at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), Spain.

    Miquel Caminal is Professor of Political Science at the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.