Federalism, federations and confederations: towards hybridity

Abstract

The classical manner of distinguishing territorial governance systems of states is between confederations, federations and unitary states. This article argues that these distinctions do not adequately describe the complexity of contemporary political systems. It places the contemporary situation in the historical context of the development of the nation-state and how different traditions led to different forms of territorial organization primary federal or unitary. Today, however, both federal and unitary systems are marked by a complexity of arrangements with varying degrees of centralization and decentralization along different dimensions.
Confederations are not nation-states as such but groupings of nation-states. Within the nation-states themselves there is a tendency to combine both federal and unitary features thus blurring a clear-cut distinction. We have called this a situation of ‘hybridity’. This has implications for democratic organization and practice.