3
decentralized unitary states. The constitutional division of powers (even as interpreted by
the courts) is not always an accurate guide to policy-making autonomy and discretion
enjoyed by different tiers. Some powers may have fallen into abeyance, or the superior
financial and political resources of one level (usually the federal) may allow it to interfere
in the other’s jurisdiction. A better indicator of the degree of autonomy enjoyed by
regions may be the proportion of public spending that is under the control of the
respective levels
(for such measurements see Watts 2001: 29 and Lijphart 1979: 504).
A key distinction for our purposes is that federations can be multi-national/multi-ethnic
or mono-national in character. In the former, the boundaries of the internal units are
usually drawn in such a way that at least some of them are controlled by national or
ethnic minorities. In addition, more than one nationality may be explicitly recognized as
co-founders and co-owners of the federation.
The first such federation was Switzerland
,
established in its current form in 1848, and the second, Canada, established in 1867. The
Indian subcontinent was divided after decolonization into the two multi-ethnic
federations of India and Pakistan. Africa has two federations, Nigeria and Ethiopia,
while South Africa appears federal in all but name. The communist Soviet Union,
Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were organized as multi-national federations, and the
Russian Republic (RSFSR), one of the constituent units of the Soviet Union, was itself
organized along federal lines. These communist federations did not bestow genuine
democratic self-government on their minorities, and fell apart in the early 1990s,
although Yugoslavia continued as a dyadic federation incorporating Serbia and
Montenegro until 2003, when it was transformed into a confederation renamed Serbia
and Montenegro that looked likely to dissolve into two independent states. Bosnia
became a multi-national federation under the internationally enforced Dayton Agreement
of 1995, with one of its units itself being another bi-national federation of Bosniacs and
Croats
. Belgium has recently evolved into a federation,
and both Euro-optimists and
pessimists think that the European Union (EU) is moving in the same direction. Multi-
national federations have been proposed for a significant number of other divided
societies, including Afghanistan,
2
Burma, China, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq and Indonesia.
3
National federations may be nationally or ethnically homogeneous (or predominantly so),
or they are organized, often consciously, so as not to recognize more than one official
nationality --- often this happens in such a way that the state’s national and ethnic
minorities are also minorities in each of the constituent units. The intention behind
national federalism is nation-building, the elimination of internal national (and perhaps
also ethnic) differences. The founding and paradigmatic example of a national federation
is the United States. The Latin American federations of Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and
Venezuela adopted its model. Germany, Austria, Australia, Malaysia and the United
Arab Emirates are also national federations. American and American-educated
2
See
www.forumfed.org/Publications/afghan/bria.pdf
3
Multi-ethnic federalism was once suggested for the United States as a way of giving self-
government to southern Blacks. The idea of creating a black state in the South was supported by the
American Communist Party in the 1930s and various black power organisations in the 1960s. It is no
longer discussed, primarily because of black migration into northern cities (Glazer, 1977: 74).
Convention