Dialogues On Political Parties And Civil Society In Federal Countries

Booklet 9 explores the patterns of mutual interaction between political parties and federal institutions in the following twelve federal countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States. Contributors examine the multi-level structures of electoral competition and the vertical linkages of state-wide party organizations in their country, as well as processes of government formation and the coordination of public policies across territorial levels via party channels.

Political parties and civil society organizations are among the most important political actors in federal democracies. These bodies represent both the interests and political identities of people on an individual level; society-wide, they make demands on public institutions and provide support for political preferences. They are also key political actors themselves, functioning as intermediaries between citizens and governments. This fascinating comparative study of the interactions between political parties and civil society in federal systems sheds new light on how these interactions function, influence politics, and ultimately shape a society. Political parties are known to be vital forces in federal systems. Less well-understood is the role of civil-society institutions; the reason for this in part is that in many less developed federations, political parties may be robust but civil society is weak. Yet there has until now been little comparison of these institutions across federations. By selecting key issues, experts in eleven federal systems consider how these interactions work and how they may be game-changing. Each chapter provides an overview of its country's arrangements, institutions, and practices regarding political parties and civil society organizations. Chapters reveal how parties and civil society are embedded in an institutional setting as well as the organizational structures and the territorial dynamics of interest mediation. They also analyze the impact of parties and civil society on federal developments. This clearly written, well-edited collection will be accessible to interested citizens, political leaders, government practitioners, and students and faculty in institutions of higher education. It also provides insight into emerging trends for all these readers. The study concludes, for example, that federalism has proved to be a powerful weapon for opposition parties to challenge one-party hegemony, and that traditional party allegiances is declining across states. Another fascinating insight is new sectors that have been growing in many countries, sectors that focus such issues as citizens' rights, environmental protection, and gender equality. A vast majority of nation-states are multinational, multilingual, multireligious, and/or multicultural, and many of these are federations. Understanding the interactions between political bodies within these states helps us understand the twin trends of globalization and regionalization evident throughout today's world. This book was undertaken as a joint project of the Forum of Federations, an international network on federalism that seeks to strengthen democratic governance by promoting dialogue on the functioning of federalism, and the International Association of Centres for Federal Studies, an association of centres and institutes throughout the world that maintain a research and teaching focus on political systems that have federal features.

These lively, timely, and accessible dialogues on federal systems provide the reader with highlights of each topic, serving as an entry point to the corresponding book, which offers a more in depth, comprehensive exploration of the theme. Whether you are a student or teacher of federalism, working in the field of federalism, or simply interested in the theme, these booklets are an insightful and informative analysis of the topic at hand in each of the featured countries. Booklet 7 examines the balance of diversity and unity in the following federal or federal-type countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Nigeria, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America. Contributors include Nicholas Aroney (University of Queensland, Australia), Balveer Arora (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India), Petra Bendel (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Irina Busygina (Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Russia), César Colino (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain), Frank Delmartino (Institute of International and European Policy, Belgium), Hugues Dumont (Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, Belgium), Marcus Faro de Castro (Brasília University, Brazil), Assefa Fiseha (Ethiopian Civil Service College, Ethiopia), Thomas Fleiner (University of Fribourg, Switzerland), Alain-G. Gagnon (Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada), Mohammed Habib (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia), Andreas Heinemann-Grüder (University of Bonn, Germany), Maya Hertig (University of Geneva, Switzerland), John Kincaid (Lafayette College, USA), Gilberto Marcos Antonio Rodrigues (Catholic University of Santos, Brazil), Luis Moreno (Spanish National Research Council, Spain), Richard Simeon (University of Toronto, Canada), Roland Sturm (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Rotimi T. Suberu (Bennington College, USA), and Sébastien Van Drooghenbroeck (Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, Belgium).

These lively, timely, and accessible dialogues on federal systems provide a comparative snapshot of each topic and include comparative analyses, glossaries of country-specific terminology, and a timeline of major constitutional events. Countries considered include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Whether you are a student or teacher of federalism, working in the field of federalism, or simply interested in the topic, these booklets will prove to be an insightful, brief exploration of the topic at hand in each of the featured countries. Contributors include Sarah Byrne (Université de Fribourg), Marcelo Piancastelli de Siqueira (Institute for Applied Economic Research, Brasillia), Hugues Dumont (Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, Brussels), J.Isawa Elaigwu (Institute of Governance and Social Research, Jos), Thomas Fleiner (Université de Fribourg), Xavier Bernadi Gil (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona), Ellis Katz (International Association of Centers for Federal Studies, PA), Nicolas Lagasse (Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, Brussels), Clement Macintyre (University of Adelaide), George Mathew (Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi), Manuel González Oropeza (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Hans-Peter Schneider (Universität Hannover), Richard Simeon (University of Toronto), Clara Velasco (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona), Ronald L. Watts (Queen's University), and John Williams (Australian National University, Canberra).

Ideology is a ubiquitous, continuously innovating dimension of human experience, but its character and impact are notoriously difficult to pinpoint within political and social life. Political Ideology in Parties, Policy, and Civil Society demonstrates that the reach and significance of political ideology can be most effectively understood by employing a multidisciplinary approach. Offering analyses that are simultaneously empirical and interpretive – in fields as diverse as development assistance policy and game theory – the contributors to this volume reveal ideology’s penetration in varied spheres, including government activity, party competition, agricultural and working-class communities, and academic life.

Explores ways to make democracy work better, with particular focus on the integral role of local institutions.

Through examination of parliamentary governments in twelve countries, this book demonstrates the ways in which study of the parties in governing coalitions, and their parliamentary opposition, provides insight into numerous aspects of countries’ cultural values, societal schisms, and the issues of greatest contention among their people. Each chapter analyses the political parties in a different country’s parliament and illustrates how they represent the country’s competing interests, social divisions, and public policy debates. Coalition and opposition parties are also shown to reflect each country’s: political institutions; political actors; political culture; and societal, geographic, and ideological rifts. In many of the countries, changes in the constellation of parties in government are emblematic of important political, social, and economic changes. This book will be essential reading for students of parliamentary government, political parties, electoral politics, and, more broadly, comparative politics.

Providing a comprehensive view of the constitutional architecture of federations, contributors address change and development in federal states from the standpoint of constitutional revision and reform. Oftentimes change comes from the constituent units that together form a federation. With this in mind, political scientists and legal scholars from across Europe and North America address three important questions. First, what is the scope of national space - the range of discretion and autonomy in constitutional design and development - that is available to the sub-national units in federal system? Second, to what extent have the sub-national units occupied the constitutional space available to them? Third, what have been the effects of constitutional initiatives by sub-national units within their constitutional space on national constitutional development (vertical federalism), on constitutional development in other sub-national units (horizontal federalism), and on political development within their own borders? A comparative, interdisciplinary approach to constitutionalism in federal systems, this volume will be of particular interest to scholars studying federalism, comparative politics, public law, and political development. Contributors include Michael Burgess (University of Kent) and G. Alan Tarr (Rutgers University-Camden), John J. Dinan (Wake Forest University), Arthur Gunlicks (University of Richmond), Peter Bu?jäger (University of Innsbruck), Jens Woelk (University of Trento), Nicolas Schmitt (University of Fribourg), Patrick Peeters (University of Leuven), Gerald Baier (University of British Columbia), Stephen Tierney (University of Edinburgh), Carlos Viver (University of Barcelona), Francesco Palermo (University of Verona), Anneli Albi (University of Kent), Ornella Porchia (University of Turin).