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The Decline of Intra-State Federalism in Western Europe*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Otto Kirchheimer
Otto Kirchheimer
Affiliation:
federal government.
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Extract

Among the constitutional devices sometimes recommended as remedies for the ills of present society, federalism has come to play a consistent, if not a major, role. A rapid glance at the balance sheet of Western European intrastate federalism over the last three decades might therefore be of some usefulness.

The uncertainty over the continued existence of federal states is shown by the difficulty in defining their distinguishing features. Assertions in constitutional documents do not help much, as they are political assertions rather than guiding principles of interpretation. Some constitutions have even tried to square the circle. Thus, the Spanish Constitution of 1931 in the same breath called Spain an “integral state” and defined it as consisting of provinces as well as regions formed according to the “principle of autonomy.” The Bonn Basic Law of 1949 dodges the issue elegantly by affirming in its preamble that it is the German people in the eleven states who have enacted the basic law.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , April 1951 , pp. 281 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1951

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References

1 Spanish Const, of Dec. 9, 1931, Art. 1; as to the history and origin of Art. 1 cf. Smith, R. M., “The Day of the Liberals in Spain,” Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938CrossRefGoogle Scholar, chap. XII.

2 Swiss Const, of May 29, 1874, Art. 5; and Austrian Const, of Oct. 1-Nov. 20, 1920, Art. Ill (2).

3 Const, of Aug. 11, 1919, Art. 18; Basic Law of May 8–23, 1949, Arts. 28 and 29. qualified at the outset, and so would the Italy of the 1947 Constitution.

4 Italian Const, of Dec. 22–27, 1947, Art. 132.

5 Spanish Const., Art. 12.

6 As to the difficulties of defining the present-day state character, cf. Bourdeau, G., Traité de science politique, Paris, 1949, Part II, p. 441.Google Scholar

7 The present political scene in Schleswig-Holstein might well bear further analysis under this aspect.

8 Madariaga, Salvador de, Spain, London, 1942, p. 169.Google Scholar

9 For a more extensive discussion of this point, see Duvergier, Maurice, Influence des Systèmes Electoraux sur la Vie Politique, Paris, 1950, p. 38.Google Scholar

10 Brennan, Gerald, The Spanish Labyrinth, London, 1943, p. 321, n. 1.Google Scholar

11 Confederacion Espaniola de Derechos Autonomos, an election coalition of all right-wing groups.

12 The relevant documents have been published by Poetzsch-Heffter, Fritz, “Vom Staatsleben unter der Weimarer Verfassung (vom 1. Januar 1920 bis 31. Dezember 1924),” Jahrbuch des Oeffentlichen Rechts, Bd. 13, Tübingen, 1925.Google Scholar

13 The documents are reprinted as an appendix in Braunthal's, JuliusThe Tragedy of Austria, London, 1948Google Scholar; see esp. the draft of the letter of July 22, 1933, p. 187.

14 Verfassungslehre, Munich, 1928, p. 376. National minority problems, if not aggravated by lopsided distribution of wealth among the various nationalities and used as a spearhead for foreign intervention, are by themselves no insuperable obstacles for the working of a federation. Both aggravating factors, however, have been present in Czechoslovakia in the late thirties. In Catalonia and the Basque provinces national autonomy never had a fair trial, as it became immediately wrapped up in a single package with all the miseries and convulsions of modern Spain.

15 See the detailed survey of all cases in Poetzsch-Heffter, , “Vora Staatsleben unter der Weimarer Verfassung,” II. Teil, Jahrbuch des Oeffentlichen Rechts, Bd. 17, Tübingen, 1929, pp. 118–30.Google Scholar

16 The story may be found in Brecht, Arnold, Federalism and Regionalism in Germany, New York, Oxford University Press, 1945Google Scholar; for the identical judgment of a contemporary politician, cf. Severing, Carl, Mein hebensweg, Cologne, 1950, II, 169.Google Scholar

17 Both the integrating as well as the protective functions of the referendum for the existence of the federative structure of Switzerland have been underlined by Fleiner, F. in his Bundesstaatsrecht, Zurich, 1923, p. 316Google Scholar; the revision of this authoritative work by Zaccaria Giacometti in 1949 has reiterated this interpretation.

18 This restricted usefulness of constitutional court proceedings was first emphasized by Smend, Rudolf, Verfassung und Verfassungsrecht, Munich, 1928, esp. p. 173.Google Scholar

19 For a modern discussion of the secession problem see Wheare, K. C., Federals Government, New York, H. Milford, 1947, pp. 90–92.Google Scholar

20 Spanish Const., Art. 13. Yet the pattern is not novel; see, for example, the Swiss Const., Art. 7.

21 Weber, Werner, Weimarer Verfassung und Banner Grundgesetz, Göttingen, 1949, p. 13.Google Scholar

22 This seems to be the best translation of the term Autonome Gebietskoer-perschajten, which is the most appropriate characterization of the true status and remaining functions of the present Laender. Cf. Schmid, Karl, “Die politische und staat-rechtliche Ordnung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland,” in Die oeffentliche Verwaltung, 1949, p. 204.Google Scholar

23 Cf. Abendroth, W., “Zwiespaeltiges Verfassungsrecht in Deutschland,” Archiv des oeffentlichen Rechts, Bd. 76, 1950, p. 19.Google Scholar

24 As to the interpretation of Art. 117 of the Constitution, cf. Miele, Giovanni, La Regione nella costituzione Italiana, Florence, 1949, pp. 90 ff.Google Scholar

25 Sicilian Regional Statute of May 15–June 10, 1946, Art. 38.

26 Ibid., Art. 31.

27 Assembla Regionale Siciliana, Feb. 13, 1950, pp. 3064 ff.; and Mar. 20, 1950, p. 3074, esp. the speeches of the Communist deputees Ramirez, Montalbano, and Marc Ginea and the rejoinder of the majority representatives Cacopardo, Alessi, and the President of the Regional government, Restivo.

28 Ibid., p. 3074, Cacopardo: “In una certa fase della nostra vita politica si accese una lotta a Roma per il coordinamento dello Statute con la costituzione della Re-pubblica. In quella occasione abbiamo avuto moda di constatare Vestienza d'una fronta unica hostile alia Sicilia.”

29 Reference may also be made to the fairly negative experience of South Tyrol. Here the operation of the regional statute might have given some degree of autonomy to the fairly compact German-speaking minority, if it had not been for the fact that the statute, in keeping with the terminology of the constitution, was intentionally drawn so as to merge the German-speaking majority in the Bozen-Brixen region with the numerically stronger Italian group in the Trentino. Thus the South-Tyrolians were left in the position of a permanent minority within the region itself. The Bozen-Brixen area received only provincial status within the region, allowing its representatives to pass legislation in matters like provincial libraries, local fairs, and public aid in case of natural disasters. Cf. special statute for the Trento-Alto Adige region of Feb. 26–Mar. 13, 1948, Arts. 3 and 11.

30 French Const, of Nov. 10, 1946, Arts. 85–89; cf. my skeptical preview in Kirch-heimer, O., A Constitution for the Fourth Republic, Washington, Foundation for Foreign Affairs, 1947, p. 32.Google Scholar

31 For pro rata contributions, 266, 838; against, 48S, 418. The cantons divided six for, sixteen against.

32 Neue Zuericher Zeitung, Dec. 4, 1950.

33 Schlesinger, Rudolf, Federalism in Central and Eastern Europe, London, 1945, pp. 402 ff.Google Scholar; for the federal practice of the first five years of Soviet domination, cf. Carr, E. H., The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923, London, 1950, Vol. ICrossRefGoogle Scholar, chaps. XI and XII.

34 De la Démocratie en Amérique, 15th ed., Paris, 1868, I, 275.

35 The Federalist, No. 46.