ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a theoretical account of the relationship between federalism and democracy. In scholarship, democracy is sometimes pinpointed as a defining feature of federal systems. Burgess distinguished liberal democracy as a value underpinning so-called mature federal systems and non-democratic systems as flawed, emergent or aspiring federations. Riker, by contrast, warned about this ‘ideological fallacy’. This chapter takes into account Hueglin’s plea to take federalism more seriously as a principle of its own right. By considering federalism and democracy values of their own, the chapter analyses where they contrast and in which way they may reinforce each other. The chapter argues that for an insightful discussion of the relationship between federalism and democracy, we need to distinguish between forms of federal systems – including dual and cooperative federalism – and types of democratic government.
