Föderalismus und Subsidiarität

A federal order is usually adopted in order to have an institutional framework of government that accounts for regional heterogeneity and allows differentiating government action according to regionally diverse preferences. However, every federal system continuously needs to find a balance between the federal level and sub-central jurisdictions. This volume contains perspectives of economists, legal scholars and political scientists on the trade-offs that involve centralization, subsidiarity and competition in federal orders. The contributors to this volume discuss how the principle of subsidiarity can be operationalized, how sub-central autonomy can be protected against tendencies of centralization, and what limits the scope of efficient federal competition. A special emphasis is put on the implications for the European Union, which appears to be evolving into a federal order itself.