Federal Challenges and Challenges to Federalism - 9781138299016

Taylor & Francis

Discussing what we may learn from thinking about the EU in federal terms represents a two-fold challenge. It is on the one hand a matter of establishing \u2018how federal\u2019 the EU is (the EU\u2019s federal challenge). On the other, the EU has federal features but is not a state, thus raising the question of whether federal theory and practice may have to be adapted to take proper account of the EU (the EU\u2019s challenge to federalism). The contributions to this collection supplement and extend existing scholarship through focusing on two important lines of inquiry. The first focuses on the relationship between federalism and democracy, with particular emphasis on how federal systems respond to and deal with citizens\u2019 interests and concerns, within and outside the political system. Representation is explored both in the process of federalization, and as a feature of established systems. The second line of inquiry places the emphasis on the relationship among the governments.