Table of Contents
Federalism is flexible
Federalism is not a rigid structural arrangement. It seeks pragmatic solutions to the organization and distribution of political powers in order to meet the common needs of people while accommodating their diverse circumstances and preferences.
Federalism is dynamic
While structures and even constitutional provisions may endure, the practices and operations are likely to change over time. At different times, federal systems may become more centralized, or they may become more decentralized.
Size and democracy
Most democracies that cover large territories are federal (i.e., Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, and the United States).
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Pluralism
Federalism has made democracy more viable by providing a way for ethnic, religious, racial, and linguistic communities to benefit from political and economic union while retaining considerable autonomy, self-government and communal identity (e.g., Belgium, Canada, India, Malaysia and Switzerland).
Common market prosperity
Creating a common market through federation or other federal-like arrangements can greatly expand opportunities for economic development and entrepreneurial freedom.
Checks and Balances
Federalism offers citizens multiple points of access to public power and, thus, an ability to appeal to other governments when one is unresponsive. Multiple governments also check and balance each other, thereby limiting the potential for arbitrary decisions and poor treatment of minorities.
Human diversity
By promoting unity without uniformity, federalism seeks to protect human diversity, which serves not only to enhance liberty and the richness of life but also to produce innovation and adaptation to change.
Creative experimentation
A federation benefits from the ability of components to serve as a laboratory, and try social and economic experiments. Successful experiments may be adopted by other members of the federation or applied throughout the federation. For example, Saskatchewan’s development of medicare spread throughout Canada.
Citizen choice
By providing for regional and local self-government and for freedom of internal mobility, a federal union gives citizens many choices of government jurisdictions offering different “packages” of taxes, public services, and civic values. Thus, federalism permits citizens to “vote with their feet” by leaving, or threatening to leave, a jurisdiction. This puts pressure on governments to match public services to public preferences.
Public service efficiency
Federal systems are often accused of being inefficient because there can be duplication of services. It may take longer to make some decisions than would be true under benign centralization. However, history seems to show that centralized governments are, in reality, generally less efficient and more wasteful. A federal system allows for an efficient delivery of public goods by enabling governments to provide public services that are economically appropriate to their territorial jurisdiction (e.g., defence by the general government, highways by state government, and trash collection by local government, and much responsive to citizen needs and preference.
