Bulletin n. 2-3/2012 | ||
October 2012-February 2013 | ||
Patricia Popelier |
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The Need for Sub-National Constitutions in Federal Theory and Practice. The Belgian Case | ||
in Perspectives on federalism , vol. 4, issue 2 , 2012 , 36-58 | ||
Comparative constitutional scholarship identifies sub-national constituent power as one of the defining features of federal systems. Moreover, according to public choice theory, devolutionary federal systems are expected to favor the creation of sub-national constitutions. For these reasons, the absence of real constitutional power for the sub-states in Belgium appears to be an anomaly. The research question of this paper explores the validity of this approach. More generally, the question is: how important is it in a federal state for sub-states to have their own sub-national constitutions? Arguments pro and contra are analyzed and applied to the Belgian case. I argue that sub-national constitutionalism is a matter of political balance between national and sub-national powers, rather than a principle of federal theory | ||