This book compares the constitutional politics in Canada and the United Kingdom - two complex, multilevel, plurinational states. While the former is federal and the latter a devolved state, the logic of both systems is similar: to combine unity with diversity. Both are facing similar challenges in a world marked by spatial rescaling, international interdependence and economic and social change. The contributors chart these challenges and the responses of the two countries, covering the meanings of federalism and devolution; the role of the courts; fiscal equalization; welfare; party politics; reform by popular referendum and citizen assemblies; and intergovernmental relations. The book will be of interest to students of federalism and multilevel government, state transformation territorial politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

This book compares the constitutional politics in Canada and the United Kingdom - two complex, multilevel, plurinational states. While the former is federal and the latter a devolved state, the logic of both systems is similar: to combine unity with diversity. Both are facing similar challenges in a world marked by spatial rescaling, international interdependence and economic and social change. The contributors chart these challenges and the responses of the two countries, covering the meanings of federalism and devolution; the role of the courts; fiscal equalization; welfare; party politics; reform by popular referendum and citizen assemblies; and intergovernmental relations. The book will be of interest to students of federalism and multilevel government, state transformation territorial politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

Like all major events in Canadian history, the Quebec Conference of 1864, an important step on Canada's road to Confederation, deserves to be discussed and better understood. Efforts to revitalize historical memory must take a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach. The Quebec Conference of 1864 expresses a renewed historical interest over the last two decades in both the Quebec-Canada constitutional trajectory and the study of federalism. Contributors from a variety of disciplines argue that a more grounded understanding of the 72 Quebec Resolutions of 1864 is key to interpreting the internal architecture of the contemporary constitutional apparatus in Canada, and a new interpretation is crucial to appraise the progress made over the 150 years since the institution of federalism. The second volume in a series that began with The Constitutions That Shaped Us: A Historical Anthology of Pre-1867 Canadian Constitutions, this book reveals a society in constant transition, as well as the presence of national projects that live in tension with the Canadian federation.

At a time when nationalist movements are forcefully looking for new forms of political, institutional, and constitutional accommodation - if not seeking independence altogether - insight into their dynamics is more useful than ever. In The Parliaments of Autonomous Nations, Guy Laforest and Andre Lecours assemble an original perspective on minority nations in Belgium, Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Analyzing how parliaments in Flanders, Quebec, Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have worked to build, consolidate, and express their identities, manage and protect the cultural distinctiveness of their communities, as well as articulate self-determination claims, contributors provide insights into these nations' democracies and traditions. Essays also focus on the central parliaments of multinational states, and on the methods used by these parliaments to promote their own national identities and respond to minority nations' claims for recognition, autonomy, or even independence. An illuminating look at the internal forces of Western governments, The Parliaments of Autonomous Nations also offers a broad view of vital concerns such as nationalist struggles, federalism, and parliamentarism.