Federalism: A Constitutional Idea for our Time

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter reviews the book, its main findings, and conclusions. The task of the book has been to retrieve and explain the nature of federal constitutionalism as a discrete but broad species of constitutional government; one that has developed through the dialectic of theory and practice but has done so by way of many and varied institutional manifestations. From the perspective of constitutional theory it is ultimately misconceived to search for a definitive institutional model of federal government. The constitutional idea of federalism must instead be pieced together from its refraction through various real-world instantiations over time and from place to place. Federalism is a discrete idea for government that flows immanently from the core legal-normative purpose that unifies all polities within the federal family of modern constitutionalism; a unifying purpose that I have called ‘the federal contract’. The chapter asserts that federalism is at root a constitutional idea, founded in a dynamic and flexible relationship between authority and democratic legitimacy; it is an idea of great potential for the societal complexity of today’s world. As a consequence, it should be freed from the institutional and ideational baggage that has so distorted its essence, and thereupon reclaimed, revitalised, and put to use as a vital constitutional resource in an age of territorial pluralism.