The Value of Comparative Federalism: The Legacy of Ronald L. Watts

This book explores new avenues of international research in comparative federal studies. It re-examines the conceptual tools and methodologies for understanding federal systems, and the role of comparative federalism in the dissemination and implementation of federal concepts. It highlights the influence of comparative federalism on constitution-making as well as constitutional reforms.

The volume provides innovative and pragmatic perspectives from both the Global North and the Global South, with case studies drawn from established federations such as India, Canada, Australia, and Austria, and emerging federal systems such as Italy and South Africa. Advocating a combined approach that integrates modern and traditional theoretical routes with practical insights and contemporary analyses, it discusses the issues of multilevel elections and federal governance; coalition governments and multiparty democracy in parliamentary federal systems, such as India; minority empowerment; gender budgeting; self-governance; multinational federalism; unitary states; the nation-state; and degenerating federalism. It also breaks new ground by looking at federalism from a gender perspective and deals with tools for measuring fiscal responsibility, and a social and cultural index.

A tribute to the intellectual legacy of Ronald L. Watts, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political science, federalism, comparative federal studies, political studies, comparative politics, governance, public administration and law, development studies, South Asian studies, and Global South and North studies as well policymakers, international government bodies, research institutes, development experts, and other organisations working in the area.

Nico Steytler is Professor of Public Law, Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development. He is a former member of the Financial and Fiscal Commission, and former President of the International Association of Centres for Federal Studies. He has published widely on federalism, including Decentralisation and Constitutionalism in Africa (2019, co-edited); Concurrent Powers in Federal Systems: Meaning, Making, Managing (2017, edited); Local Government Law of South Africa (2019, co-authored); and Kenyan-South African Dialogue on Devolution (2015).

Balveer Arora is Chairman, Centre for Multilevel Federalism, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, India, and former Professor of Political Science, Centre for Political Studies, and former Rector and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He has been Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Paris; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris; Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH), Paris; and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He is Officer in the Order of Academic Laurels (France) and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (France). Among his publications are the coedited volumes Federalism in India: Origins and Development (1992); Multiple Identities in a Single State: Indian Federalism in Comparative Perspective (1995); Changing Role of the All-India Services (2000); and Transforming India: Socio-Political Dynamics of Democracy (2000).

Rekha Saxena is Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India; Honorary Vice-Chairperson of the Centre for Multilevel Federalism at New Delhi; and Honorary Senior Advisor to the Forum of Federations, Ottawa, Canada. Her publications include Varieties of Federal Governance: Major Contemporary Models (edited 2011), Mapping Canadian Federalism for India (edited 2002), Situating Federalism: Mechanisms of Intergovernmental Relations in Canada and India (authored 2006), India at the Polls: Parliamentary Elections in the Federal Phase (co-authored 2003), Indian Politics: Constitutional Design and Institutional Functioning (co-authored 2011) and Federalizing India in the Age of Globalization (co-authored 2013), Indian Parliament: The Changing Landscape (co-edited 2014), and The Indian Judiciary: The Changing Landscape (co-edited 2007).