ABSTRACT
Federal systems may be conceived of as a set of formal and informal institutions having as a typical goal the integration and coexistence of different territorial groups or entities. These institutions try to maintain a balance between autonomy and cooperation at the same time. This is accomplished through the institutionalized distribution of territorial power, resources and representation in order to make policies across levels of government. Like all institutions, federal institutions evolve, in the short or long term, in peculiar trajectories and at different paces. Also, despite the persistence of their basic features and even in the absence of constitutional reforms or formal changes, the institutional arrangements and the operation of federations may change considerably in an incremental way, transforming the system and its effectiveness from one decade to the next. At some points, different federal systems seem to converge in their evolution, but at other moments they seem to take diverging paths. If analyzed in detail, thus, the extent and forms of federal evolution show more variation than is usually acknowledged.
