Konträr oder konstruktiv? Zur produktiven Widersprüchlichkeit zwischen Föderalismus und parlamentarischer Demokratie

Abstract

The relationship between federalism and parliamentary democracy was long considered to be susceptible to functional problems, and thus in parts incompatible . Accordingly, cross- level political coordination, which is necessary for federalism in practice, stands at odds with the dynamics of partisan competition typical of parliamentary systems of government . The interactions between both processes were considered as either susceptible to deadlocks in intergovernmental coordination or as a cause of de-parliamentarization of politics . In light of the diversity of federal systems in practice, however, this viewpoint appears as over- ly narrow . While democracy and federalism are surely not inherent counterparts, the con- junction of these two different regime dimensions in one political system is by no means inevitably contradictory . Instead, the search to reconcile and balance different, and in-parts countervailing demands and functional logics, pose an ongoing task for any federal democ- racy . Depending on patterns of coping with the tensions between them, indeed the inter- connections and interaction between federalism and parliamentary democracy can prove to be productive and to facilitate modes of democratic governance .