Articles for tag: Constitutional Hardball, Föderalismus, Resistance, state power, uncooperative federalism, United States, US Supreme Court

Litigation v. Politics

The Trump Administration appears committed to crush any and all opposition by the aggressive use of national power. Given the constitutional status of federalism within the United States, these attempts at control from Washington are provoking a wave of litigation. However, it is also important to pay attention to the political means by which states can engage in resistance. A major issue of the moment is whether the Texas Legislature will adhere to the strong demand by Donald Trump that it redraw the legislative districts; and whether Democrats within the state will succeed in their defiance.

8. August 2025

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Troops in L.A.

This past weekend, President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum that federalized National Guard troops and deployed those troops alongside active-duty marines in response to protests against his aggressive immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles. While framed as a response to violence, the order also addresses peaceful protest. The decision to send military forces against civilians engaged in protected First Amendment activity marks a dangerous escalation, raising serious legal and constitutional concerns.

13. Juni 2025

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Austria’s Populist Turn

With the elections in September 2024, the populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) became the strongest party in Austria for the first time. In January 2025, hopes of averting populism quickly faded when Austria’s Federal President Alexander van der Bellen was left with no choice other than giving the FPÖ a mandate to form a government. In this context, two aspects stand out: the role of constitutional conventions in recent months and the political change in the Bundesländer (states).

16. Januar 2025

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Political Resistance and Two Dirty Words

On November 6, Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election in a landslide, winning all Swing States and the popular vote. Given the dire consequences of Trump’s second presidency looming on the horizon, it would be natural for Democrats’ reactions to include some of English’s finest swear words, the f- and the s- words in particular. But besides swearing being impolite, there are at least two other dirty words to consider: Federalism and (State) Sovereignty. It is time to use them for progressive purposes and shield Democrat states against excessive overreach by the Trump administration, as some had already suggested during the first Trump presidency

15. November 2024

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Irreführendes Versprechen

Auch wenn mit dem Ampel-Aus und der Haushaltskrise die bisherigen Pläne auf Eis liegen: Sozialer Wohnungsbau dürfte ein wichtiges Wahlkampfthema werden. Allerdings: Das Versprechen sozialen Wohnungsbaus ist irreführend. Der Bund ist dafür seit der Föderalismusreform 2006 nicht mehr zuständig. Außerdem baut der Staat in Deutschland selbst keine Wohnungen, sondern schafft lediglich (finanzielle) Anreize und überlasst den Bau anderen. Die Bundesregierung kann hier zwar unterstützend eingreifen – doch ohne die Länder werden keine neuen Sozialwohnungen entstehen.

13. November 2024

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Von frommen Wünschen und dicken Knüppeln

Die Politik einer autoritären Landesregierung wird nicht an den Grenzen des von ihr regierten Bundeslandes haltmachen. Dafür ist das föderale Gefüge der Bundesrepublik viel zu sehr auf Kooperation und Koordination ausgelegt. Wie für einzelne Bürger*innen stellt sich auch für die Bundesländer die Frage, wie sie auf autoritäre Regierungen jenseits der eigenen Landesgrenzen reagieren können.

27. Mai 2024

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Reimagining Indian Federalism

As India’s new dominant party system coalesced after 2014, the country entered a phase of centralisation. India has always had federalism with a strong centre, but from the late 1980s to the mid-2010s, political and economic regionalism and national coalition governments encompassing national and regional parties produced an appearance of deepening federalisation. Since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the first party in over 25 years to win an outright parliamentary majority, the twin pillars of political centralisation under a dominant party system and economic concentration, have once again drawn attention to the contested nature of India’s federal contract.

7. April 2024

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Subnational Politics and the Path of National Democracies

In Germany and the United States, political factions have emerged in the last decade that have challenged some of the core institutions, conventions, and norms of liberal democratic life. In both countries, subnational units of government—states or municipalities—have operated as staging grounds for parties or factions of parties that reject some or all necessary elements of democratic practice. While they have used different institutional tactics to this end, many basic elements of political strategy can be observed across the two cases.

8. Februar 2024

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A New Battlefront for Scottish Nationalists in the United Kingdom

By blocking the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, the UK Government is showing that it is now ready to police the boundaries of devolved competence more robustly, especially when it believes legislation is being used deliberately to veer into reserved matters. It is perhaps also now asserting a more homogeneous approach to fundamental human rights values, an assertion which is the hallmark of other federal systems. The current debate also exposes that the radical devolution of so many powers to sub-state institutions over the past two decades without serious thought being given for the potential impact of this process upon the maintenance of coherent state policy was perhaps ill-advised and requires correction.

13. Februar 2023

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Political Terror in the Shade of Bolsonarism

The attacks of Bolsonarist supporters on democracy and the rule of law in Brazil have reached an extent that has never been witnessed in Brazil since the promulgation of the Constitution of 1988. On 8 January 2023, emulating the events of 6 January 2020 in the USA, a mob of 3,000 Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed the buildings of the National Congress, the Federal Supreme Court, and the Presidency of the Republic in Brazil, which are all located in the famous quarter known as the “Three Branches Square”. In a way, the invasion of the US Capitol has been more tragic, given that human lives have been lost. But there is a sense in which the assault in Brazil was more devastating from a symbolic point of view.

9. Januar 2023

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