Lecture 11/12

Question 1

Unitary system

Answer 1

One in which sovereignty rests with the national government, and regional or local units have no independent powers

Question 2

Federal system

Answer 2

• Legal sovereignty is shared between the federal government and the constituent
• Powers of constituent units are entrenched in the constitution
• States/regions are represented in an upper chamber of the assembly

Question 3

Multilevel governance

Answer 3

term used to describe how policy-makers and interest groups in liberal democracies, find themselves discussing.

Question 4

Dual federalism

Answer 4

Refers to the very strict division between power of federal government and the states

Question 5

Swiss federalism

Answer 5

Difference in religion, language, territory, culture and population between the 26 sub-units

Question 6

Bottom-up federation

Answer 6

When you look at the moment of the creation of the federation

Question 7

Top-down federation

Answer 7

Federation created from a unitary system to actually hold the country together (Belgium)

Question 8

Non-territorial federation

Answer 8

Autonomy granted on non-territorial basis

Question 9

Confederal states

Answer 9

Looser form of a federation, consisting of a union of states with more powers left in the hands of the constituent members

Question 10

Unitary states

Answer 10

state sovereignty rests exclusively with the central government (Netherlands)

Question 11

Distribution of power in unitary states

Answer 11

• Deconcentration: central government functions are executed by the bureaucrats in the field. No transfer of power, but transfer of people outside the central state.
• Decentralisation: central government functions and competencies are execute by sub-national governments
• Devolution: central government grant some autonomy to the lower levels, sovereignty is being shared across these governments.

Question 12

Disadvantages of federalism

Answer 12

• Civil war
• More difficult to make decisions in time of crises
• Decision making is slow
• Mirabel airport (conflict about allocation of resources)
• Sub-government can spend money where the federal government is responsible of
• Treated unequally in different parts of country
• Unequal seats in terms of the state, violates one person, one vote