Comparing federal systems
By: Ronald L. Watts
Contributors: Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.). Institute of Intergovernmental Relations; Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.). School of Policy Studies
Edition: 2nd ed
Publisher: Published for the School of Policy Studies, Queen's University by McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Kingston, Ont
Language: eng
Number of pages: 138
Subjects: Federal government; Comparative government
Other titles: Comparing federal systems in the 1990s
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.
Notes: "Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen's University" --Cover

Previously published under title: Comparing federal systems in the 1990s

Includes bibliographical references (p. [135]-138)