Federalism is a mixed or compound mode of government that combines a general government with regional governments in a single political system, dividing the powers between the two. Federalism in the modern era was first adopted in the unions of states during the Old Swiss Confederacy.
As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government". In other words, it is the study of how competencies and fiscal instruments are allocated across different (vertical) layers of the administration. An important part of its subject matter is the system of transfer payments or grants by which a central government shares its revenues with lower levels of government.
Federalism in the United States is the constitutional division of power between U.S. state governments and the federal government of the United States. Since the founding of the country, and particularly with the end of the American Civil War, power shifted away from the states and toward the national government. The progression of federalism includes dual, cooperative, and new federalism.
Dual federalism, also known as layer-cake federalism or divided sovereignty, is a political arrangement in which power is divided between the federal and state governments in clearly defined terms, with state governments exercising those powers accorded to them without interference from the federal government. Dual federalism is defined in contrast to cooperative federalism, in which federal and state governments collaborate on policy.
Deil S. Wright was an American political scientist, who specialized in public administration and spent much of his career as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was an expert on intergovernmental relations, and wrote a leading textbook on that subject.
John Loughlin is a British-based academic and educator from Northern Ireland, and a noted specialist in European territorial politics. After being educated in St. Malachy's College, he spent several years as a Cistercian monk at Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey, Portglenone, Northern Ireland, where he carried out the usual studies for the priesthood in philosophy, theology and biblical studies. He is currently a Fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford. He is an Emeritus Fellow and former Tutor at St Edmund's College, where he was Director of the Von Hügel Institute, and a Senior Fellow and Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies, both at the University of Cambridge.
Daniel Judah Elazar was a political scientist known for his seminal studies of political culture of the US states. He was professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Temple University in Pennsylvania, and director of the Center for the Study of Federalism at Temple University and the founder and president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
William Samuel Livingston was a political science professor who was the acting president of the University of Texas at Austin, a position he held from 1992 until 1993. Born in Ironton, Ohio, Livingston fought in World War II as a first lieutenant and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. In 1943 he obtained bachelor's and master's degrees from Ohio State University before transferring to Yale University, where he was award a PhD in 1950.
Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (1961) is a Canadian politics and public policy scholar at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where he is Associate Professor, co-director of the Local Government Institute, and director of the European Studies Program. He is editor of the international scholarly publication; Journal of Borderlands Studies (JBS), and executive secretary and treasurer of the international scholarly Association for Borderlands Studies.
Arthur Whittier MacMahon was an American political scientist, president of the American Political Science Association in 1946–47, and a pioneer in the academic study of public administration.
Vincent Alfred Ostrom was an American political economist and the Founding Director of the Ostrom Workshop based at Indiana University and the Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science. He and his wife, the political economist Elinor Ostrom, made numerous contributions to the field of political science, political economy, and public choice.
Robert M. Stein is an American political scientist and Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of political science at Rice University. He is an expert in urban politics and public policy.
The U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) was an independent, bipartisan agency in the United States federal government formed to study and consider the federal government's intergovernmental relationships. It was established in 1959 by under Public Law 86-380 and operated until 1996.
Publius: The Journal of Federalism is a social science journal published by Oxford University Press for CSF: Publius, Inc., an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Federalism. The journal is international in scope and devoted to the theory and practice of federalism. It was founded in 1973 by Daniel Elazar. Its title is in honor of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison, who used the pen-name "Publius" in 1787-1788 when they published the papers that became known as The Federalist. The journal is sponsored by the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of the American Political Science Association and receives financial support from Florida State University.
Robert Agranoff was an American political scientist and public administration scholar and author. A Professor Emeritus at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Agranoff was best known for his contributions to the field of collaborative public management and intergovernmental management.
John Wanna is Professor Emeritus at both the Australian National University (ANU) and Griffith University. Before retiring in 2019, Wanna was the Foundation Professor with the Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) based at the ANU. He held this position from 2004-2019. Prior to that he was Professor of Public Policy at Griffith University.
Grace Skogstad is a Canadian political scientist and professor at the University of Toronto. and a cross-appointed affiliate faculty in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
David E. Wilkins, a citizen of the Lumbee Nation, is a political scientist specializing in federal Indian policy and law. He is the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies in the University of Richmond. He studies Native politics, governance, and legal systems, with a particular focus on Native sovereignty, self-determination, and diplomacy. Wilkins was a student of Vine Deloria Jr., coauthoring two books with Deloria and writing a book about his intellectual impact.
Nicola McEwen, FRSE is professor of territorial politics at the University of Edinburgh, co-director of the Centre on Constitutional Change, and senior fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe. She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021. She leads research on devolution and inter-institutional relations. She provides advice to governments and public bodies and gives media expert perspectives internationally. McEwen's research and insights are sought for public engagement and political or business briefings during major events like the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum, and the Smith Commission, UK BREXIT and recent elections such as to the Scottish Parliament. She has a reputation for being authoritative and trustworthy in engaging with senior politicians, civil service and civic society and has regular media engagements on various topics. McEwen is consulted on aspects such as potential impact on welfare of Scottish independence, or informing parliament on the impact of BREXIT on intra-UK relations and communicating her findings and explanations to public media.
