This article presents the conclusions of the project Why Centralization and Decentralization in Federations?, which analyzed dynamic decentralization in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Switzerland, and the United States over their entire life span. It highlights six main conclusions. First,...

Abstract This article puts the self-interest hypothesis to an empirical test by analysing the 2004 referendum on fiscal equalisation in Switzerland. That vote put forth a series of reforms which created regional winners and loser in terms of having to pay or receiving unconditional funding....

This article reconceptualizes shared rule and uses novel data to measure it, thus addressing two shortcomings of federal literature. First, while most studies focus on self-rule, one question that is largely neglected is how lower-level governments can influence politics at a higher level in the...

Among individuals with multiple social identities in multicultural societies, why are some more politically salient than others? On the basis of an empirical analysis of the 2013 referendum on the creation of an expanded canton in Swiss Jura, this paper argues that it is minority status that...

This article develops a conceptual, methodological, and theoretical framework for analyzing dynamic decentralization in federations. It first reviews the literature and outlines the research design and methods adopted. It then conceptualizes static decentralization and describes the seven-point...

This article addresses long-standing challenges in conceptualizing and measuring decentralization in unitary and federal systems. It first outlines a novel conceptualization of decentralization and its relation to the unitary/federal distinction and a/symmetry, from which it derives static and...

The Engines of European Integration. Delegation, Agency and Agenda-Setting in the EU, by M.A. Pollack Le Fait Regional et la Construction Europeenne, edited by M.T. Bitsch NATO, the European Union, and the Atlantic Community: The Transatlantic Bargain Reconsidered, by S.R. Sloan Privatisation in...

Books reviewed: Lisa Conant - Justice Contained: Law and Politics in the European Union Kenneth Dyson - European States and the Euro: Europeanization, Variation and Convergence Karen J. Alter - Establishing a Supremacy of European Law: The Making of an International Rule of Law in Europe Vivian...