This volume, based on papers delivered at a conference in Bruges, Belgium, explores the development of European federalism. The contributors also examine the political systems of other countries such as the U.S. and Canada in order to gain insight into European integration. Some of the topics covered in the volume include recent attitudes of the German Lander towards European integration; citizenship and European union; federalism and the environment; the language problem in European integration; and the politics and administration of federalism. Contributors: Wilifred Martens, Daniel Elazar, Alain Gagnon, Michael Burgess, John Kincaid, C. Lloyd Brown-John, Stephen Schechter, Bruce McDowell, Kieran St. Clair Bradley, Joachim Jens Hesse, Ronald Watts, Nicolas Schmitt, Cheryl Saunders, Frans Vanistendael, Marcelo Duarte, Jean Beaufays, Wolfgang Renzsch, Reinhard Rack, Audrey Brassloff, Gary Miller, Jacob Landau, Alexander Murphy, Maureen Covell, Rudolf Hrbek, Karel Rimanque, and Andre Alen.

A revisionist interpretation of the post-war evolution of European integration and the European Union (EU), this book reappraises and reassesses conventional explanations of European integration. It adopts a federalist approach which supplements state-based arguments with federal political ideas, influences and strategies. By exploring the philosophical and historical origins of federal ideas and tracing their influence throughout the whole of the EU's evolution, the book makes a significant contribution to the scholarly debate about the nature and development of the EU. The book looks at federal ideas stretching back to the sixteenth century and demonstrates their fundamental continuity to contemporary European integration. It situates these ideas in the broad context of post-war western Europe and underlines their practical relevance in the activities of Jean Monnet and Altiero Spinelli. Post-war empirical developments are explored from a federalist perspective, revealing an enduring persistence of federal ideas which have been either ignored or overlooked in conventional interpretations. The book challenges traditional conceptions of the post-war and contemporary evolution of the EU, to reassert and reinstate federalism in theory and practice at the very core of European integration.

In Search of the Federal Spirit is a major new examination of the theory and practice of federal state formation in the post-Cold War era. It introduces the concept of the federal spirit as a means of exploring the emergence of a range of new political models.

This book deals with the theoretical and empirical questions of federalism in the context of five case studies: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany and Switzerland. The central argument is that in the long run the political institutions of federalism adapt to achieve congruence with the underlying social structure. This change could be in the centralist direction reflecting ethno-linguistic homogeneity, or in decentralist terms corresponding to ethno-linguistic heterogeneity. In this context, the volume: fills a gap in the comparative federalism literature by analyzing the patterns of change and continuity in five federal systems of the industrial west, this is done by an in-depth empirical examination of the case studies through a single framework of analysis illustrates the shortcomings of new-institutionalist approaches in explaining change, highlighting the usefulness of society-based approaches in studying change and continuity in comparative politics. Explaining Federalism will be of interest to students and scholars of federalism, comparative government, comparative institutional analysis and comparative public policy.

"An invaluable resource for debaters, The Debatabase Book provides background, arguments and resources on more than 125 debate topics in areas as diverse as business, science and technology, environment, politics, religion, culture, and education. All topics have been updated and 15 new topics added for the revised edition." "Each entry presents: an introduction placing the topic in context; arguments pro and con; sample motions; and Web links and print resources for further research. Organized in a handy A-Z format, the book also includes a topical index for easy searching."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A new examination of contemporary federalism and federation, which delivers a detailed theoretical study underpinned by fresh case studies. It is grounded in a clear distinction between 'federations', particular kinds of states, and 'federalism', the thinking that drives and promotes them. It also details the origins, formation, evolution and operations of federal political interests, through an authoritative series of chapters that: analyze the conceptual bases of federalism and federation through the evolution of the intellectual debate on federalism; the American Federal experience; the origins of federal states; and the relationship between state-building and national integration explore comparative federalism and federation by looking at five main pathways into comparative analysis with empirical studies on the US, Canada, Australia, India, Malaysia, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the EU explore the pathology of federations, looking at failures and successes, the impact of globalization. The final chapter also presents a definitive assessment of federal theory. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of federalism, devolution, comparative politics and government.