ABSTRACT
In what appears now as a very different historical era, Kenneth C. Wheare’s Federal Government (1st edition 1946; 4th edition 1963) served to introduce the postwar generation in the English-speaking world to the comparative politics of federalism. That book was a major step forward for its time. It shifted attention from the law of constitutions to the practice of federalism. It saw federalism as an evolutionary political arrangement rather than a fixed formula for the territorial division of governmental powers. The balance of power between central and regional units could change over time. Wheare (1963, 236) pointed out that among a group of states that could be labelled as ‘classic’ federations – the United States, Switzerland, Canada and Australia – Canada, with the least federal constitution was the one where ‘the strict application of the federal principle’ appeared to be the strongest. The United States and Switzerland, heretofore the favourite examples of advocates of federalism, were knocked off their constitutional pedestal.
