ABSTRACT
The question of freedom is essential for understanding the very nature of federalism as a multidimensional philosophical, political and legal concept. This chapter distinguishes between two essentially different politico-philosophical concepts of federalism that differ based on their conceptions of the relation between freedom and order. Within the constitutional logic of modern statehood, federalism is seen as an instrument for restraining the sphere of authority and expanding the sphere of individual freedom. The role of federalism, once caught up in the logic of the liberal state, could not be anything other than an additional instrument for restraining the sphere of sovereignty and enlarging the sphere of individual freedom. Political community is built through agreement-based connections of functionally and territorially organised consociations. Political decisions in such complex systems are replaced by constant negotiations and the search for consensus among narrower and wider consociations related by objective interests.
