Abstract
This article outlines a conceptual framework for analysing constitutional change in federal systems. It begins by explaining the dilemmas, tensions and dynamics inherent in federations that cause the need for adaptation and formal reform of constitutions. After reviewing some approaches and concepts from the literature, the article introduces a conceptual framework for understanding constitutional federal change. It tackles its complexity by determining its modes, mechanisms and outcomes. First, it proposes an analytical distinction among four types of constitutional federal change—reform, innovation, evolution and adjustment—and presents a distinction among four mechanisms of change, distinguishing change produced through constitutional policy making, ‘implicit’ change of intergovernmental rules and patterns of governance practices, intergovernmental competition and/or ‘paradigmatic’ shifts in constitutional ideas and values, or change in court decisions and legal interpretation and discourses. It also deals with several typical outcomes of federal change. Finally, some implications for further research are examined.
Acknowledgements
This special issue profited from discussions in a workshop we held in the 2008 ECPR Joint Sessions in Rennes about the ‘The Politics of Constitutional Change’. We thank all participants for the insights they provided for our own thinking on the subject. Moreover, we are grateful for the helpful comments of the reviewer.
Notes
For Canada, see Banting and Simeon Citation(1983), Russell Citation(2004) and Hueglin Citation(2008); for Germany, see Große-Hüttmann Citation(2006), Hrbek Citation(2006), Benz Citation(2008b), Burkhart Citation(2009), Scharpf Citation(2009) and Sturm Citation(2010); for Switzerland, see Freiburghaus Citation(2005), Vatter et al
Citation(2006) and Braun Citation(2009); for Austria, see Bußjäger and Hrbek Citation(2005), Gerlich Citation(2005), Konrath Citation(2005) and Pollak and Slominski Citation(2005); for Spain, see Orte and Wilson Citation(2007), Colino Citation(2009), Keating and Wilson Citation(2009) and Tudela and Kölling Citation(2009); for Australia, see Brown and Bellamy Citation(2007), Galligan (Citation2008); for the UK, see Münter Citation(2005), Bradbury Citation(2008), Trench Citation(2008), Jeffery Citation(2009) and Mitchell Citation(2009).
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