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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]

Federalism

Mahendra Prasad Singh

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]
Article last updated:
August 2017

From: Oxford Constitutions (http://oxcon.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 11 December 2024

Subject(s):
Central government — Decentralization — Delegation of power — Federalism

General Editors: Rainer Grote, Frauke Lachenmann, Rüdiger Wolfrum
Managing Editor: Martina Mantovani

1. The contemporary connotation of the term ‘federalism’ as a form of government is a development of late 18th century America. Its earlier usages were more extensive and diffused, denoting social and political formations at national as well as international levels, mostly the latter. It arose as an alternative term to the monolithic power structure of the sovereign state that emerged out of the Treaties of Westphalia (1648–1659) heralding the decline of the feudal Holy Roman Empire in Europe, referring to the plans for internal structuring of a single state as...
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