Why switch to federalism?

India and Malaysia.

In Europe, Austria, Germany and Switzerland are the main federal states.

Australia, in Oceania, is a topranked and prosperous federal state.

Most federated countries are democracies, although most democracies do not have federal systems.

Authoritarian regimes generally do not wish to disperse power away from the central government.

Both the Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia had federal systems, but with strong central governments.

When democracy swept through these countries in 1989 and the early 1990s, they dissolved into many smaller nations.

India and the US are the biggest federal states in terms of population.

Canada, Brazil and the US are the biggest federal states in terms of land area.

Switzerland, Austria and Malaysia are the smallest federal states in terms of population size and land area.

adopt federalism as its governing framework.

The debate is just beginning

The debate is just beginning. There will be plenty of arguments. If federalists can win the argument, federalism will pass.

Otherwise, it will be back to the drawing board for federalism advocates.

Mindanao’s campaign against imperial Manila will be met by something similar to “the empire strikes back.”

If Alvarez and other politicians think that this debate can be won by just spending DU30’s political capital, they should dismiss the thought.

That capital may be better spent elsewhere.

This debate must be won by persuasion, and by sound argument and intelligent constitutional design.

“Presidential power,” says the foremost authority on modern presidency Richard Neustadt, “is the power to persuade.”