Asymmetrical Federalism Research Articles

Fiscal Federalism in Russia: Rules versus Electoral Politics

This paper examines the determinants of financial flows between the federal government and regional authorities in Russia. The main question is to what extent intergovernmental transfers correspond to the ‘ideal pattern’ – equalisation of the abilities of the regions to provide public goods – and to what extent, if at all, they reflect the influence of federal–regional political discourse (asymmetrical federalism). The main finding is that actual net transfers since 1994, although quite close to the ‘ideal patterns’, depended also on the results of the parliamentary (1993, 1995, 1999) and presidential (1996, 2000) elections and on the relations of the regions with the federal centre. The more votes cast for pro-central government parties in parliamentary elections and for Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential elections and the lower the tensions with Moscow after the elections, the more favourable was the fiscal balance for the region with the federal centre. The result is very robust when using different measures of fiscal capacity (index of tax potential) and costs of providing public goods (budgetary expenditure adjustment index).

Asymmetric Federalism in India

The focus of this paper is unequal arrangements and special treatment for some units within Indian federalism, namely. We first explore the conceptual issues - the causes and consequences of asymmetric federalism. Next, we trace the evolution of Indian federalism and analyze the factors contributing to the asymmetric arrangements in political, administrative and fiscal relations. We bring out asymmetric arrangements arising from constitutional arrangements or conventions evolved over the years. Recent political developments and asymmetric treatment due to administrative and political exigencies are also analyzed.

The Chechen wars: will Russia go the way of the Soviet Union?

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin improvised a system of asymmetric federalism to help maintain its successor state, the Russian Federation. However, when sparks of independence flared up in Chechnya, Yeltsin and, later, Vladimir Putin chose military action to deal with a brushfire that they feared would spread to other regions and eventually destroy the federation. Matthew Evangelista examines the causes of the Chechen Wars of 1994 and 1999 and challenges Moscow's claims that the Russian Federation was too fragile to withstand the potential loss of one rebellious republic. He suggests that the danger for Russia lies less in a Soviet-style disintegration than in a misguided attempt at authoritarian recentralization, something that would jeopardize Russia's fledgling democratic institutions. He also contends that well-documented acts of terrorism by some Chechen fighters should not serve as an excuse for Russia to commit war crimes and atrocities. Evangelista urges emerging democracies like Russia to deal with violent internal conflict and terrorism without undermining the fundamental rights and freedoms of their citizens. He recommends that the United States and other democracies be more attentive to Moscow's violations of human rights and, in their own struggle against terrorism, provide a kind of role model.

Asymmetric Federalism and Coalition-Making in Belgium

This article examines the asymmetric aspects of Belgian federalism. The term “asymmetry” covers many meanings. The cultural, socioeconomic, political party, and formal-institutional differences between the regions of the Belgian federation clearly make Belgium a strong case of asymmetry. However, these asymmetric features have largely been neutralized by preferences of the major-party leaders for building symmetric or congruent government coalitions in the federal and regional arenas. The article not only explains why Belgian party elites have acted accordingly but also demonstrates that the genuine meaning of asymmetry cannot be understood properly without putting the concept of asymmetry into the framework of party politics. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.

Russian Federalism in Comparative Perspective

A specialist on the comparative analysis of states and polities provides a framework for investigating the extent to which federal states are democratic in their operations. The article outlines propositions derived from data on eleven continuously democratic federal systems in the world during the 1990s. Russia is then compared systematically with these systems with respect to the federal legacies of pre-Soviet and Soviet power, the distinctiveness and democratic viability of its current “asymmetrical federalism,” and the roles of presidential, legislative, and party-system power. Aggregate data and a case study are presented that bear on the difference between levels of democracy in republics as opposed to oblasts. The dynamics of central “power creation” since August 1998 are explored.

Three stories, two visions: the West and the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Canadian culture

Many now think the Canadian nation-state is entering a phase in its development that can be described as “postmodern” ( Porter, 1995, pp. 91–106). Throughout the 1990s we have heard much talk of “asymmetrical federalism,” “bilateral federalism,” “successor states” and Quebec/ROC (Rest of Canada) polarities ( Watts, 1991, pp. 1–7). In this time of constitutional and political ferment, commentators postulated the existence of as many as “seven incipient nations” within the borders of the present Canadian polity ( Mahler and March, 1991, p. 16). There are resonances here within the field of literary criticism. Linda Hutcheon and Marion Richmond’s Other Solitudes: Canadian Multicultural Fictions (1990) highlight factors of paradox, contradiction, and extreme irony in the Canadian situation, factors they see as central to the postmodern world view. This paper examines two works of Canadian popular culture analyzed against E. J. Pratt’s Towards the Last Spike (1952) in an effort to suggest that a postmodern style may have something to offer our sociopolitical debate. The television dramatization of Pierre Berton’s two-volume work on the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, The National Dream (1974), and the Canada Day Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) special “Murray McLauchlan’s Floating Over Canada” represent, with Pratt, two differing visions of Canada. The McLauchlan effort, I hope to show, when set against Berton and Pratt, represents an implied postmodern critique of modernism’s romantic faith in technological efficiency and cultural tradition. McLaughlan’s antiintentionalism and playfulness, I argue, offer a useful way to represent some of our present dilemmas and may even provide reasons for optimism about problems that have plagued Canadians for years.

Asymmetrical Federalism and State Breakdown in Russia

A distinguished American specialist on Russian politics summarizes factors, both domestic and international, pushing for and against regional separatism from the Russian Federation. Attention then turns to factors influencing the further devolution of authority from central to regional officials. A typology is offered of types of issues animating conflict in center-periphery relations. The article then discusses the impact of the August 1998 crisis on these trends and on prospects for the future.

From Unitary to Asymmetric Federalism in Germany: Taking Stock after 50 Years

Policymaking in the German federal system is influenced by the dynamic interplay of the institutions of cooperative federalism, of party competition in a parliamentary system, and of distributive conflicts between governments. This is shown in an analysis of 50 years of German federalism. It is argued that while the institutional setting outlived most reform efforts, changing patterns of party politics and growing distributive conflicts induced adjustments in intergovernmental relations. Since the 1980s, such adjustments have also been stimulated by European politics. In unified Germany, intergovernmental cooperation is now burdened with asymmetries between the East and the West, which are also expressed in a more regionalized party system. However, as party political confrontations have diminished, a pragmatic revision of the federal system seems feasible.

From Unitary to Asymmetric Federalism in Germany: Taking Stock after 50 Years

From Unitary to Asymmetric Federalism in Germany: Taking Stock after 50 Years

Russia's provinces: authoritarian transformation versus local autonomy?

List of Tables - Preface - List of Tables - The Spatial Context of Intended Transformation - Traditional Soviet Regional Policy - Russian Regional Roulette: Asymmetric Federalism and Economic Change - The Revitalisation of Nomenklatura Power in the Altai - The Rise of Authoritarian Power in Russia's Gateway to Pacific Asia - Gateway Versus Agrarian Region: Institutional Restructuring and Economic Adaptation - Conclusion - Endnotes - Appendix - Bibliography - Index

Indigenous Political and Property Rights and Economic/Environmental Reform in Northwest Siberia

A Canadian political scientist examines a broad range of issues and problems associated with the de facto devolution of decision-making power and legal authority from the Russian Federation government to the oblasts, krays, and autonomous okrugs of the Russian North. Current changes (devolution, constitutional development, regional and local political development) are examined within the context of the legacy of the Soviet system (asymmetrical federalism, developed regional/local/titular bureaucracies, and centralized bodies directing and supporting Northern development). Specific examples from the Sakha Republic and Chukchi Okrug, based on interviews and field observations, are used to illustrate basic premises. 1 map, 27 references.

Devolution, Constitutional Development, and the Russian North

A Canadian political scientist examines a broad range of issues and problems associated with the de facto devolution of decision-making power and legal authority from the Russian Federation government to the oblasts, krays, and autonomous okrugs of the Russian North. Current changes (devolution, constitutional development, regional and local political development) are examined within the context of the legacy of the Soviet system (asymmetrical federalism, developed regional/local/titular bureaucracies, and centralized bodies directing and supporting Northern development). Specific examples from the Sakha Republic and Chukchi Okrug, based on interviews and field observations, are used to illustrate basic premises. 1 map, 27 references.

Polity and Group Difference: A Critique of the Ideal of Universal Citizenship

An ideal of universal citizenship has driven the emancipatory momentum of modern political life. Ever since the bourgeoisie challenged aristocratic privileges by claiming equal political rights for citizens as such, women, workers, Jews, blacks, and others have pressed for inclusion in that citizenship status. Modern political theory asserted the equal moral worth of all persons, and social movements of the oppressed took this seriously as implying the inclusion of all persons in full citizenship status under the equal protection of the law. Citizenship for everyone, and everyone the same qua citizen. Modern political thought generally assumed that the universality of citizenship in the sense of citizenship for all implies a universality of citizenship in the sense that citizenship status transcends particularity and difference. Whatever the social or group differences among citizens, whatever their inequalities of wealth, status, and power in the everyday activities of civil society, citizenship gives everyone the same status as peers in the political public. With equality conceived as sameness, the ideal of universal citizenship carries at least two meanings in addition to the extension of citizenship to everyone: (a) universality defined as general in opposition to particular; what citizens have in common as opposed to how they differ, and (b) universality in the sense of laws and rules that say the same for all and apply to all in the same way; laws and rules that are blind to individual and group differences. During this angry, sometimes bloody, political struggle in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many among the excluded and disadvantaged thought that winning full citizenship status, that is, equal political and civil rights, would lead to their freedom and equality. Now in the late twentieth century, however, when citizenship rights have been formally extended to all groups in liberal capitalist societies, some groups still find themselves treated as second-class citizens. Social movements of oppressed and excluded groups have recently asked why extension of equal citizenship rights has not led to social justice and equality. Part of the answer is

Asymmetrical Federalism: The Federal Principle and the Survival of the Small Republic

Asymmetrical Federalism: The Federal Principle and the Survival of the Small Republic