Except for three countries – Japan, Indonesia, Philippines- all democracies with a population of more than 100 million people have adopted a federal form of government. Some of the countries that have a federal government are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada ,Comoros, Congo, Ethiopia, Germany, Austria, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United States and Venezuela.

There are other countries that have organized regional governments and are moving towards federalism. Colombia, Italy and Japan have relatively strong regional governments. France and Peru are devolving more powers to elected regional governments. The United Kingdom retains a central government but has devolved a lot of powers to the regions of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In order to resolve conflicts among minority groups, Iraq, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal have started moving towards federalism.

Countries that have adopted federalism come in many different cultures and political persuasions. Some are very large countries like the Brazil and India; and, some are very small like Comoros and the UAE. Some have very homogenous cultures like Austria and Venezuela; and some have very diverse populations like India, Belgium and Malaysia. Some have a long tradition of democracy like Switzerland the United States; and, others have either troubled or no history of democracy like Pakistan and Iraq.

There is no one perfect model for a federal structure. This is because there no single model that would be appropriate for all countries under all circumstances. This variety of structures of federalism is actually one of the greatest asset of federalism.

Some federal states have only two or three regional governments like Belgium and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Australia has six states and South Africa has four states. Some have dozens of states or regional governments like the United States, India, and Brazil. Some actually retain a strong, central government like Russia and Venezuela. Others have extensive autonomy like Switzerland.

Most federal governments have a division of powers with some overlapping like the United States, Australia, Germany and India. Some federations have a prime minister and parliamentary form of government like Canada, Germany, Malaysia and Belgium. Many federations have a presidential form of government with a congress like the United States, Mexico, and Venezuela, Argentina and South Africa. Some have a mixture of the two – presidential and parliamentary – like France and Russia.

George Anderson has written extensively on federalism. He states that while there may be many different federalism models, there are a few common characteristics that distinguish federal systems from other kinds of government. These characteristics are:

• At least two orders of government, one for the whole country and the other for the regions. Each government has a direct electoral relationship with its citizens – whether national or regional. The regions have many names like states or cantons.

• A written constitution, some parts of which cannot be amended by the federal government alone. Major amendments affecting the constituent units – states – common require substantial consent from them as well as from central government.

• A constitution that formally allocates legislative, including fiscal powers to the two sides of government ensuring some genuine autonomy for each order. However, federations, federations differ greatly in the way and extent to which they define powers for the two orders – national and regional.

• Usually some special arrangements, notably in the upper houses i.e. Senate, for the representation of the constituent units – regional governments – in key central institutions to provide for regional input in central decision making, often with given to smaller units than their population would otherwise merit. ( Example: In the United States. Each state is entitled to elect only two senators. California with a population of 38 million and North Dakota with less than 800,000 have the same number of Senators.)

• An umpire or procedure (usually involving courts, but sometimes referendums or an upper house) to rule on constitutional disputes between the national and regional governments or among regional governments (In the United States, the criminal courts are under the state governments. constitutional disputes are handled by Federal Courts which are under the federal government.)

• A set of procedures and institutions for facilitating and conducting relations between governments.

According to Anderson: “If there is an essence of federalism, it is that there are two constitutionally established orders of government with some genuine autonomy from each other, and the government at each level are primarily accountable to their respective electorates – whether national or regional.”

In thinking about federalism, political scientists have cautioned us that while federalism is a proven form of governance, it has all the strengths and weaknesses of any form of democratic government – federal or centralized. Federalism is not immune to corruption, conflicts or the breakdown of peace and order.

In his study on federalism, George Anderson has concluded: “While some federations have survived deep trauma, there is no doubt that a federation functions best in a society that respects rule of law and independence of the courts.” It has often been said that unity is a key challenge in a federal form of government . But the challenge to national unity can exist in both federal and non-federal form of government.

It is time for the Philippines to begin the dialogue on federalism.

source: http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/07/21/1605061/federalism-no-one-perfect-model