ABSTRACT
Based on the taxonomy of polities with respect to the system of government, all states can be placed on a continuum ranging from unitary to confederal arrangements, with federal states the middle. Unitary states are structured in such a way that all decision-making rests in the hands of the central government and the decision-making flows from the centre to the local provinces or entities. A totalitarian state would represent the most extreme version of a unitary state since all political power is said to be concentrated in the centre and at the top of a hierarchical power structure, resulting in ‘total control’ by ruling elites or a single leader. Federal systems sit in between unitary and confederal arrangements and they are characterized by power-sharing arrangements between a strong central government and strong governments of first-order administrative units. In theory, federalism provides uniformity, which is the strength of the unitary system when necessary, while at the same time allowing for diversity and local rule when needed. At the opposite end of the spectrum are confederal arrangements where the first-order administrative units hold political power and the central government has authority only over a narrow range of policy issues (Kaiser 1994). There has been an extensive debate over whether federal arrangements are conflict-mitigating solutions (Nordlinger 1972; Lijphart 1977; Kymlicka 1995; Brubaker 1996; Cohen 1997; Stepan 1999; Gurr 2000; Bermeo 2002) or whether they highlight the inherent instability of a given political system (Riker 1964; Lemco 1991; Crawford 1998; Skalnik Leff 1999; Stepan 1999; Roeder 2009). The effectiveness of ethnofederal solutions are part of this debate – on the one hand, there is an assumption that they allow different ethnic groups to form a stable and effective administrative units (Stepan 1999). However, the literature arguing that such arrangements induce conflict has been more preponderant, with the arguments stemming from Lipset (1963) and Nordlinger (1972), to more recently Snyder (2000).
