Addis Ababa University Joint PhD Programme in Peace, Federalism and Human Rights

1. Addis Ababa University Joint PhD Programme in Peace, Federalism and Human Rights Federalism and Human Rights: The Challenges of Multiculturalism 8th Class Prof. Thomas Fleiner (ideas Prof. Lidija Basta Fleiner)

2. Outline: • I - Historical Context and Key Issues • II - F - Words defined: federalism, federal political systems, federations • III - Outlook

3. I - Historical Context and Key IssuesI.1. Historical Context • A historical development of federalism as a normative political theory shows that federalism emerged as an alternative to a centralised modern state with a view to: • a) sovereignty; • b) legitimacy

4. Althusius first challenges the rise of a centralized modern state – politics as an art of consociation (XVII century) • Peace as an aim/ telos of international federalism (I. Kant: Endurable Peace) • The “American Invention”/dual federalism and 19th – century debates over sovereignty in a federal state • The mid 20th-century debate: federalism has either become obsolete (Laski); federalism is a panacea for Europe • The contemporary debate over federal citizenship in multicultural democracies

5. I. 2. As a Consequence: Major Issues • DISPUTES/AMBIGUITIES OVER: • majority/minority relationship • diversity • the nature of sovereignty and a constitutionalist argument 1+2+3 = values ideologically heterogeneous • FROM THE BEGINNING PEACE AS A “PARALLEL TELLEOLOGY” OF FEDERALISM – a linkage to multicultural fragmented societies

6. In general– redefining political integration: • Can federalism - and how - contribute to the quality of democracy in a multicultural setting? • How to understand multicultural citizenship in terms of the relationship between liberal nationalism and the ethnic minorities’ demands for equal citizenship with special rights?

7. Major dilemmas: Is there a structural tension between modern statehood and pluralism? • Do diversity and heterogeneity threaten the integrative force of the nation-state (political integration)? • How does federalism in general, and federalism accommodating multiculturalism in particular affect constitutional politics of human rights?

8. Human Rights and their effective protection revisited with a view to federalism and inter- communal peace • Direct constitutional protection and direct effect of human rights: The rule of law and federalism - group accommodation and (possibly) collective rights as a specificity • Example: The implementation of international human rights legal standards in federal multicultural states -> for the sake of communal peace collective rights by ascription can be given priority over individual human rights.

9. I.1.3.Justifications of federalism • Constitutionalist argument: vertical separation of powers –> limited government –> personal freedom • Diversity argument: Protection of minorities • Conflict-transformation argument: resolution of internal regional, religious, linguistic or ethnic (prevailingly) conflicts • The increase-of-democratic-participation argument: multi-layer governmental structure

10. II - F - Words defined: federalism, federal political systems, federations II. 1. Federalism: a/ normative political theory/ideology b/ a great variety of institutional arrangements • Federalism/Non-Decentralisation is different from decentralisation (non-hierarchical, Elazar)

11. Forms and Types of Federalism • Personal and/or Territorial Federalism (forms) • Federalism and Power-Sharing • Monistic vs. pluralist (type of) federalism (US -> CH): from constitutionalism to peace as an objective of federalism 1+2+3: The difference between form and type of federalism

12. II.1.1. Personal/Corporate Federalism • Governmental power is not distributed over territories but over population groups • Limits of governmental jurisdiction are determined by voluntary group membership, not by territorial borders Advantages: • Policy making targets directly communities • Whereas in TF with ethnically heterogeneous territories a social minority becomes a political minority, PF retains substantial autonomy in regions with mixed population NB: PF and TH are imbedded in power-sharing, but PSH is also applied in unitary states (Netherlands, Austria)

13. II.1.2. Power Sharing Elements: • Executive power-sharing/grand coalition • Minority veto • Proportional representation of major groups in elected and appointed offices • Cultural autonomy/collective rights or territorial federalism

14. II.1. 2.1. Types of power sharing • Autonomy as a direct groups’ control over important affairs of their concern (asymmetrical and symmetrical federalism) • Group-Building-Block/consociationalism encouriging collaborative decision-making (Dayton Agreement in Bosnia) • Integrative Power Sharing rejecting cohesive groups and accommodating crosscutting interests (Switzerland)

15. II. 1. 2. Cont.: Diversity of Federal Institutional Designs 2.1.2. Federalism as an institutional arrangement is a constitutionally established balance between self-rule and shared rule - a critical importance of a constitution! • Federal political system • Federal state/federal government/federation • Confederation/federacies/regionalism with federal elements

16. Federal government is a type of a compound governmental organisation within which both central and component governments operate directly upon the people, each being independent within respective, constitutionally laid down sphere of allocated powers and in co-ordinating relationship with another, whereby the residuary powers lie – in most of the cases within component units (R. Watts).

17. A federal political system unites separate polities within an overarching political system by distributing power among general and constituent governments in a manner designed to protect the existence and authority of both (D. Elazar)

18. Outlook with regard to the theory • The nature of conflicts in multi-ethnic societies -> multiculturalism as an endemic post-modern challenge and its relation to federalism • State-building and nation-building -> legitimacy in multicultural/multi-ethnic societies and rather constitution-building then (merely) constitution-making • The particularity of minority rights as “universal rights” design -> democracy and constitutionalism in multicultural/multi-ethnic societies 1 +2+3 : a particular nature of minority/majority relation in societies with community cleavages is a cross-cutting problem!