Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Devoluzione allo scozzese

I'm a federalist. I believe that bulk of the legislation that affects our daily lives should be made at a local level. Laws should be made by people who live in the same towns and cities that we frequent, not 100's of miles away.
 
This should not be confused with racism, a federalist is quite happy to be governed by someone who has emigrated from anywhere, the important issue is that the legislators are currently part of your own community.
 
Unfortunately in Italy it appears that the only 'federalist' party is so bad that one wonders whether it has actually been created by anti federalists in order to discredit the concept.
 
And so to Scotland. At present Scotland is an autonomous region with it's own legislative body. Both in terms of population and constitution it's very similar to Sicily.
 
But now they want to go further. Next year they will be holding a devolution referendum. But even if the 'Ayes have it' and devolution goes ahead, Scotland will not become a completely separate country. Far from it. 
 
Federalists do not believe in little independent states, the name itself implies that each 'region' is incorporated into a joint 'federation' such as the 'United States' or the 'European Union'. But the federalist believes that power of the federal government should be limited to issues that make sense to be 'centralized'.
 
In fact Scotland wants to remain in the EU. And the commonwealth. And NATO. In fact it will even remain a part of 'Britain'. All they are looking for is the freedom to make their own local laws and deal directly with the rest of the world. They don't see a need to have a UK government 'in the middle'.
 
And as a federalist I agree with them. I also think similar 'devolutions' could help cure a lot of problems in Europe as a whole.
 
Imagine a 'real' federalist Italy. We are not talking about 'devolution of the North', more a case of the whole of Italy being made up of large autonomous regions which interface directly with Europe, and the central government having a small, limited, role. Imagine a 'Sicilia' a 'Meridiana', a Central Italia, NE, NW...whatever. Regions of around 5 to 10 million people.
 
This is, of course, much the way Germany is organized, and so is the USA....so you can't say that it can't work!
 
But talking about the USA, that is where you really see the difference. 
 
Individual 'states' within the USA in may cases have for more freedom in making their laws than do member states of the EU.
 
On the other hand, The US federal government is much more consolidated than the EU on federal issues, such as defense.
 
In Europe citizens are fed up with the nit picking centralized legislation that sometime seems more typical of an authoritarian regime. At the same time Europe is failing on federal issues, presenting a divided face to the world at large.
 
The devolution model hold the key to changing that. By reducing the power of national governments to a fizzle, and giving citizens far more power to control their own regions (not to mention adding 'color and variety' to the local culture, as happens in the US), the citizens themselves will be far more prepared to concede to the EU on issues where it make sense.
 
Devolution is the key to a United states of Europe.
 
 
 

 Devolution is the key to a United states of
 
Italy!!!!!
 
 
-- 
(..) la rivoluzione non � un pranzo di gala, non � una festa letteraria, 
non � un disegno o un ricamo; non si pu� fare con tanta eleganza, con 
tanta serenit� e delicatezza, con tanta grazia e cortesia. La 
rivoluzione � un atto di violenza, � l'azione implacabile di una classe 
che abbatte il potere di un'altra classe.(Mao Tze-tung)