ABSTRACT
The literature on federalism has become increasingly interested in political parties, elections and voting behavior. It has also become more empirically grounded. This recent focus represents a change with respect to early work on federalism, which was mainly concerned with normative questions and with the broader constitutional features of federations rather than with their internal political and electoral dynamics. Today, explanations of how and why federalism matters for political and policy outcomes focus on the role of other institutions such as courts, upper chambers, political parties and ultimately citizens. Scholarship is moving beyond a dichotomous definition of federal versus unitary countries and into more fine-grained distinctions since understanding the institutional and political differences between federations is key to answering questions about the conditions under which such systems affect accountability, representation and efficiency in policy-making, among other topics.
