The changing faces of federalism. Institutional reconfiguration in Europe from East to West

Abstract:

This work studies the federal relationships - past, present and future - within and among the peoples of Europe.

The book is organised over thirteen chapters. Chapter one gives the theoretical introduction to the work and presents the fundamental concepts that frame the discussion on federalism in Europe. Chapter two presents the historical federal experiences in Central and Eastern Europe. This is followed by a number of case studies. Chapter three deals with Tatarstan and Chechnya in the Russian Federation. Chapters four and five look at the Baltic states, Poland and Hungary, and chapter six discusses the collapse of the Yugoslav federation. The geography of the book then moves westward; chapter seven deals with federalism in Austria while chapter eight addresses the German experience. Chapter nine covers the Italian experience and chapter ten considers the experience of Belgium and Spain. Chapter eleven looks at the federalising activities in the United Kingdom with increased devolution and the stronger decentralisation in France. Chapter twelve examines the federal dimensions of the EU itself and its projected expansion to the east, then chapter thirteen closes the work with a discussion of functional federalism.

The work will interest students and scholars in the field of social sciences.

Sergio Ortino is Professor of Economic Law at the University of Florence and at the European Academy in Bolzano/Bozen, Italy.