Putting Federalism in Its Place: Territorial Politics of Social Policy Revisited

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

What does federalism do to welfare states? This question arises in scholarly debates about policy design as well as in discussions about the right political institutions for a country. It has frustrated many, with federalism seeming to matter in all sorts of combinations with all sorts of issues, from nationalism to racism to intergovernmental competition. The diffuse federalism literature has not come to compelling answers for very basic questions.

In the new book Putting Federalism in Its Place: The Territorial Politics of Social Policy Revisited, Scott L. Greer, Daniel Béland, André Lecours, and Kenneth A. Dubin argue for a new approach—one methodologically focused on configurations of variables within cases rather than a fruitless attempt to isolate “the” effect of federalism; and one that is substantively engaged with identifying key elements in configurations as well as with when and how their interactions matter. Born out of their work on a multi-year, eleven-country project, his book comprises a methodological and substantive agenda. Methodologically, the authors shift to studies that embraced and understood the complexity within which federal political institutions operate. Substantively, they make an argument for the importance of plurinationalism, changing economic interests, and institutional legacies.

Critics Andrew Kelly, Mariely Lopez-Santana and Philip Rocco join two of the authors, Greer and Lecours, to discuss the book as a jumping-off point for both integration of the United States into comparative federalism and lessons from federalism studies for broader analysis of political institutions in comparative perspective.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Center for the Study of Federalism

Cosponsor

• Division 28: Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations

Chair

• Troy E. Smith Utah Valley University

Presenters

• André Lecours University of Ottawa

• Scott L. Greer University of Michigan

• Andrew S. Kelly California State University, East Bay

• Philip B. Rocco Marquette University

• Mariely Lopez-Santana George Mason University