Public Security In Federal Polities

Public Security in Federal Polities offers a broad comparative review of constitutional, institutional, and legislative frameworks that inform public security across nine federations, and the implications that follow for institutional design, public administration, and public policy.

Ensuring public security is increasingly becoming a complex task for governments across the world. Day-to-day public security generally referred to as maintenance of public order is a localized activity, best entrusted to a well-trained and accountable police department. However, public security across the world, irrespective of the type of government has acquired a complex character. Constitutionally designated governance domains of a federal polity create rough patches. Increasing intricacies of public security, with local, national, international and global security crossing each other’s boundaries, is creating not-easily-surmountable-challenges for police departments, increasing compulsions of synergy by the day. The need for going beyond traditionally laid out division of power to devise mechanisms that can bring different components of the security apparatus function independently as well as in coordination with each other is generally required, but has increasingly become a necessity. The nature of security requirements in rural and urban contexts calls for greater specialisation, professionalization and coordination. Aside from complex character of the politics of terror, emerging challenges of narco-terrorism, pedalling in arms, cyber crime need nationwide dexterity and exchanges amongst agencies and governments. Border management, intra-state and inter-state migrations and ferment amongst marginalised sections of population are other areas of public security that call for a federal management of public security. The present volume brings together twelve essays on Canada, India, Mexico and USA specially written for the book and bound together by a well-articulated Introduction.

Public Security in Federal Polities is the first systematic and methodical study to bring together the fields of security studies and comparative federalism. The volume explores the symbiotic relationship between public security concerns and institutional design, public administration, and public policy across nine federal country case studies: Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. In addressing specific national security concerns and aspects of globalization that are challenging conventional approaches to global, international, regional, and domestic security, this volume examines how the constitutional and institutional framework of a society affects the effectiveness and efficiency of public security arrangements. Public Security in Federal Polities identifies differences and similarities, highlights best practices, and draws out lessons for both particular federations, and for federal systems in general. This book is essential reading for scholars, students, practitioners as well as policy- and decision-makers of security and federalism.

Accounting for participation, separation of powers and democratic accountability, federalism gains momentum in times when traditional democratic legitimacy of institutional decision-making is challenged. Its ability to include multiple interests makes federalism a means to ensure good governance. Based on a multidisciplinary analysis, the book tackles the question of whether federalism as a pragmatic governance tool provides answers to current challenges and what those answers are. Thirty-three leading experts critically examine to what extent federalism serves this purpose in compound states, looking at different countries and policies. The volume revolves around five sub-themes: ‘federalism, democracy and governance’, ‘participation mechanisms and procedures’, ‘policy areas compared’, ‘institutional innovation and participatory democracy’ and ‘federalism: from theory to governance’.

Beyond Autonomy forces readers to rethink the purpose of autonomy as a central organising pillar of federalism asking how modern federalism can be reimagined in the 21st Century.

Is the business of public officials any of the public’s business? Most Canadians would argue that it is – that we citizens are entitled to enquire and get answers about our government’s actions. Yet, on a practical level, there still exists a struggle between the public’s quest for accountability and the government’s culture of secrecy. Drawing together the unique perspectives of social scientists, journalists, and access to information (ATI) advocates, Brokering Access explores the history of ATI law and supplies multiple examples of its contemporary application at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. From restrictions to access of airport security data post-9/11 to censorship under the Access to Information Act to the difficulties of obtaining details on streetscape video surveillance, this book reveals the legal and bureaucratic obstacles citizens face when trying to access government information.

In an increasingly complex and unpredictable world, a growing number of observers and practitioners have called for a reexamination of our national security system. Central to any such reform effort is an evaluation of Congress. Is Congress adequately organized to deal with national security issues in an integrated and coordinated manner? How have developments in Congress over the past few decades, such as heightened partisanship, message politics, party-committee relationships, and bicameral relations, affected topical security issues? This volume examines variation in the ways Congress has engaged federal agencies overseeing our nation's national security as well as various domestic political determinants of security policy.

The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Politics provides a comprehensive overview of the transformation that has occurred in Canadian politics since it acheived autonomy nearly a century ago, examining the institutions and processes of Canadian government and politics at the local, provincial and federal levels. It analyzes all aspects of the Canadian political system: the courts, elections, political parties, Parliament, the constitution, fiscal and political federalism, the diffusion of policies between regions, and various aspects of public policy.