Author Description

"In this updated second edition, Ronald Watts provides a clear analysis of the design and operation of a sample of federations chosen for their relevance to Canadian issues. There is much that can be learned by Canadians from the experience of federal systems elsewhere. At present there are 24 federations in the world (representing over forty per cent of the world's population). A distinctive feature of the popularity of federalism in the contemporary world is that its application has taken a variety of forms and has includes some new variants and innovations." "Countries studied include the United States, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, and Germany as examples of developed industrial societies; India and Malaysia as examples of multilingual and multicultural federations; Belgium and Spain as examples of emerging federal systems that illustrate bicommunal and asymmetrical approaches; and Czechoslovakia and Pakistan as examples of bicommunal federations that have failed. Watts compares the interaction of social diversity and political institutions, the distribution of powers and finances, the processes contributing to flexibility or rigidity in adjustment, the extent of internal symmetry or asymmetry, the degree of centralization and decentralization, the character of representation in federal institutions, the role of constitutions and courts, the provisions for constitutional rights and secession, and the pathology of federations."--Back cover.