What does the constitution tell us about intergovernmental balance in a country at a specific time? Which aspects of nationalsubnational relations cannot a
codified constitution reveal? A possible answer to the first question is that a vital feature o...
What does the constitution tell us about intergovernmental balance in a country at a specific time? Which aspects of nationalsubnational relations cannot a
codified constitution reveal? A possible answer to the first question is that a vital feature of a constitution is the relation of states or regions to the federal or national
government, as Woodrow Wilson claimed (Posner 1998). Indeed, each country’s constitution sheds formal-legal insights into how different levels of government finalize
the intricate task of assigning the specific functions of governing among themselves. In practice, however, such national- ubnational
relations are constantly subjected to redefinition because different regimes envision their own distinct pattern of multi-level governance even within the same
country. To answer the second question, I first explore how four advanced federal states, Austria, Australia, Canada, and Germany, institutionalize the national-subnational relations and put them
into practice over a period of 1960-
1995. Then, I draw a conclusion that federalism is not a uni-dimensional
concept, and thus its prac- tice requires more than a mere reconstruction of specific institutional features that are often found
in a federal state.