Dear Mr. Abaya,
On your claim that there is no empirical evidence about the values of Federalism vis a vis Unitary Governance, Atty. Pablo Trillana III of the Federalist Forum of the Philippines
has pointed out that "there is a very recent study entitled 'Federalism's Values and the
Value of Federalism.' This was done by Prof. Robert P. Inman, the Richard K. Mellon Professor of Finance and Economics at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. It
was published online last 11 January 2008."
Atty Trillana adds, "The study identified a sample of 73 countries (with sample years
from 1965 to 2000) as either federal democracies (whether constitutionally or administratively based), unitary democracies, and federal or unitary dictatorships. The sample includes 24 generally recognized federal countries (whether democratic or dictatorial) and 9 identified as administatively (or de facto) federal countries. He [Inman]concludes with this finding: 'I find
both constitutionally based and administratively based federal governments outperform unitary governments on many of federalism's valued outcomes but that there is no significant performance difference between the two forms of federalism.' The values of federalism in brief are, according to the study, seen from the perspectives of (i) economics (federalism as a means to efficient public and private sector economic performance), (ii) political science (federalism as a means to political participation and democratic stability), and (iii) law (federalism as a means to check central government powers and possible abuses of personal rights and liberties). The study, of course, further says that federalism can be seen as peforming strongly in democracies and there is no advantage in the adoption of fomal federal inbstitutions for dictatorships. Like any good professor, he advises "cautious use" of this intial evidence. The point, however, is that this matter is being analyzed empirically and the initial evidence is in favor of Federalism. The snake oil salesman apparently is not the one garbed in the 'federal suit'."
The study is quite detailed and technical and I have copied the abstract below.You may wish to look more closely (as we in FFP will also in relation to our other readings on federalism) into Prof. Inman's work (via the internet) to give you the "empirical data" that you says is absent. We do wonder whether unitary governments have "empirical data" to show they are outperforming federal governments in the aibility "to encourage political perticipation, to protect personal rights and liberties and to promote public and private economic efficiency."
| Federalism's Values and the Value of Federalism | |
|
ROBERT P. INMAN University of Pennsylvania - Finance Department; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) CESifo Economic Studies, Vol. 53, No. 4, December 2007 | |
Abstract: What is it about federal governance that makes it so attractive to economists, political philosophers, and legal scholars and is there any evidence that would suggest all this attention is warranted? Proponents see federalism as a means to more efficient public and private economies, as the foundation for increased political participation and democratic stability, and as important check on governmental abuses of personal rights and liberties. This study provides a working definition of federal governance and classifies a sample of 73 countries as either a constitutionally-based federal democracy, an administratively-based federal democracy, a unitary democracy, a federal dictatorship, or a unitary dictatorship. Governance is then related to eleven measures of economic, democratic, and rights performance. Three conclusions follow. First, decentralized policy-making does have a unique contribution to make to a society's ability to enforce property rights, to protect political and civil rights, and then because of such rights protections, to enhance private sector economic performance. Second, while policy decentralization is the key to federalism's strong rights and economic performance and can be achieved within a unitary government by fiat, constitutionally established provincial (or state) governments provide an extra and important protective barrier for policy decentralization. Federal institutions protect policy decentralization, and policy decentralization provides federalism's valued outcomes. Third, federalism needs democracy; there is no evidence that adding policy decentralization or provinces to a dictatorship significantly improves a dictatorship's economic or rights performance. | |
Keywords: Federalism, Political Economy | |
JEL Classifications: H11, H77, P48 | |
Accepted Paper Series | |
|
Suggested Citation Inman, Robert P., "Federalism's Values and the Value of Federalism" (2007). CESifo Economic Studies, Vol. 53, No. 4, December 2007 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1129967 |
--
Manuel Lino G. Faelnar
Chairman for Language and Culture,
Federalist Forum of the Philippines
Director
DILA Phils. Foundation, Inc.
(Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the
Archipelago)
Director
Lubas sa Dagang Bisaya, Inc. (LUDABI)
"Without our language, we have no culture, we have no identity, we are nothing."
Ornolfor Thorsson, adviser to President of Iceland.
"When you lose a language you lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art."
Kenneth Hale, who taught linguistics at MIT.
"Words, if powerful enough, can transport people into a journey,
real or imagined, that either creates
a fantasy or confirms reality."
Rachelle Arlin Credo, poet and
writer.
.
Offline 
Send Email