ABSTRACT
Federal practices already took place in ancient history. Adapting a commonly used classification within the current study of federalism, one should distinguish between four basic types of federal agreements: regional states, symmetrical federations, asymmetrical federalism, federal agreements and confederations. Unlike federations, confederations are the result of an international treaty or agreement between various states, which do not give up their sovereignty. Common government depends entirely upon the governments of the confederated states, which may at any time dissolve the agreement following the previously established rules. The principal aim of scholars who focus upon the relationship between federalism and the political system is to demonstrate how elements of the political system influence the practical working of federalism and vice versa. Liberal political theory has never been able to recognise appropriately, in liberal democratic terms, the national differences within the public sphere, due to its individualism, its universalism and its statism.
