Theories and Practices of Federalism in Deeply Divided Societies

Abstract

Federal systems are often compared based on their history or origins: Riker famously distinguished between ‘coming together’ and ‘holding together’ forms of federalism. Federal systems can also be viewed as serving a variety of potential purposes: they may help promote government closer to the people, greater democratic experimentation, forms of vertical as well as horizontal political accountability, and the accommodation of diversity. This special issue of the Federal Law Review (‘ FLR ’), on ‘the theory and practice of federalism in deeply divided societies’, explores those federations that originate from ‘holding together’ rather than ‘coming together’ processes, and that are designed to respond to a range of ethnic, religious, racial and territorial cleavages. There is a growing comparative literature on constitution-making and practice in ‘divided societies’, which includes attention to federalism. But there is still important work to be done understanding when and how federalism succeeds in managing social and political conflict, and promoting peace, stability and democratic resilience, especially in the Asia-Pacific. This volume thus seeks to fill this gap—by encouraging a wide-ranging exploration of these issues and contributing to a global debate on constitutionalism and constitutional design.