Abstract
With some exceptions, efforts to systematically apply a historical-institutionalist framework to the study of federalism have been few and far between. This paper argues, however, that historical institutionalism lends itself particularly well for addressing two important research questions in the field of comparative federalism: the origins of federal systems and their dynamics. It is suggested that a historical-institutionalist framework can significantly contribute to encourage theoretical cross-fertilization within the field of comparative federalism.
Keywords: comparative federalism; critical junctures; federal dynamics; historical institutionalism; path dependence
Published Online: 2012-9-10
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
You are currently not able to access this content.
You are currently not able to access this content.
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Planting the Seeds of Change Inside? Functional Cooperation with Authoritarian Regimes and Socialization into Democratic Governance.
- The Takeoff after Lisbon: The Practical and Theoretical Implications of Differentiated Integration in the EU
- "May the Best Man Win": Local Government Representatives
- Party Identification, Leader Effects and Vote Choice in Italy, 1990-2008
- Study of Volatility and Party System Transformation in the 2010 Election of the Czech Chamber of Deputies
- Neo-liberalism, Semi-clientelism and the Politics of Scale in Mexican Anti-poverty Policies
- Women’s Substantive Representation in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives: Testing the Added Value of a ‘Claims-making’ Approach
- A “New” Anarchism? – On Bifurcation and Transformation of Contemporary Anarchist Thought and Praxis
- Did the Financial Crisis Save the Red-Green Government in the 2009 Norwegian Election – the Dissatisfaction with Rising Expectations Superseded By a Grace Period?
- Historical Institutionalism and Comparative Federalism
- Principals or Beginners? The Regions and the Local Railway System (1997–2011)
- Decision Costs and Welfare Effects of Democratic Voting Rules: an Experimental Analysis
- Raising the Stakes. Passing State Budgets in Scandinavia
- European Governance: On the Relationship Between Democratic and Non-democratic Deliberation Within the European Multi-level System
- Political Development of Lithuania: A Comparative Analysis of Second Post-communist Decade
- The Normalization of Sino-French Diplomatic Relations in 1964 and the Formation of the “One-China” Principle: Negotiations over Breaking French Diplomatic Relations with the Republic of China Government and the Recognition of the People’s Republic of China as the Sole Legitimate Government
- Towards a Representative Bureaucracy: Promoting Linguistic Representation and Diversity in the Swiss and Canadian Federal Public Services
- Liberalism, Social Justice, and Individual Responsibility
- The Effects of Economic Performance on Infrastructure Spending at the State and Local Levels
- Toward a Liberal Theory of Punishment: Locke, Property, and Individualism
Keywords for this article
comparative federalism;
critical junctures;
federal dynamics;
historical institutionalism;
path dependence
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Planting the Seeds of Change Inside? Functional Cooperation with Authoritarian Regimes and Socialization into Democratic Governance.
- The Takeoff after Lisbon: The Practical and Theoretical Implications of Differentiated Integration in the EU
- "May the Best Man Win": Local Government Representatives
- Party Identification, Leader Effects and Vote Choice in Italy, 1990-2008
- Study of Volatility and Party System Transformation in the 2010 Election of the Czech Chamber of Deputies
- Neo-liberalism, Semi-clientelism and the Politics of Scale in Mexican Anti-poverty Policies
- Women’s Substantive Representation in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives: Testing the Added Value of a ‘Claims-making’ Approach
- A “New” Anarchism? – On Bifurcation and Transformation of Contemporary Anarchist Thought and Praxis
- Did the Financial Crisis Save the Red-Green Government in the 2009 Norwegian Election – the Dissatisfaction with Rising Expectations Superseded By a Grace Period?
- Historical Institutionalism and Comparative Federalism
- Principals or Beginners? The Regions and the Local Railway System (1997–2011)
- Decision Costs and Welfare Effects of Democratic Voting Rules: an Experimental Analysis
- Raising the Stakes. Passing State Budgets in Scandinavia
- European Governance: On the Relationship Between Democratic and Non-democratic Deliberation Within the European Multi-level System
- Political Development of Lithuania: A Comparative Analysis of Second Post-communist Decade
- The Normalization of Sino-French Diplomatic Relations in 1964 and the Formation of the “One-China” Principle: Negotiations over Breaking French Diplomatic Relations with the Republic of China Government and the Recognition of the People’s Republic of China as the Sole Legitimate Government
- Towards a Representative Bureaucracy: Promoting Linguistic Representation and Diversity in the Swiss and Canadian Federal Public Services
- Liberalism, Social Justice, and Individual Responsibility
- The Effects of Economic Performance on Infrastructure Spending at the State and Local Levels
- Toward a Liberal Theory of Punishment: Locke, Property, and Individualism