Intergovernmental Relations in the US, Canada, and Belgium

Abstract

AbstractIntergovernmental relations represent the second dimension of shared rule as defined in the introduction to this book. This chapter, Chapter 8, explores intergovernmental relations in foreign relations in the US, Canada, and Belgium. The next chapter, Chapter 9, turns to the EU. For each federation, the chapters start by briefly describing patterns of intergovernmental relations. In a second step, the chapters look at the constitutional rules and principles governing those patterns. The analysis reveals that in federal unions where political safeguards are weak, as in the US and Canada, intergovernmental relations are an important technique to manage shared rule. Belgium is an interesting case in this regard: formal political safeguards are strong in Belgium. Nonetheless, these strong political safeguards are supplemented with a highly formalized system of intergovernmental relations through which decision-making by consensus is imposed on all governments.