Horizontal coordination in federal political systems – non-centralization in the European Union and Canada compared

Abstract:

Using a comparative federalist approach, the main objective of this article is to understand how horizontal coordination in federal political systems is likely to materialize. Starting from the notion of ‘shared rule’, the article argues that ‘non-centralization’ may occur in a given policy area when the loss of resources at the constituent unit level is not compensated with an equivalent increase in federal powers.In the meantime, horizontal interdependence as well as vertical independence are facilitated through different incentives.

The combination of these two factors leads to horizontal coordination where federal actors come to play a different role. The analytical framework advanced in the article is applied to two different cases, the Canadian inter-provincial trade, and the EU’s economic governance framework.