Multinational Federalism and Value Pluralism

This book addresses the democratic accommodation of national pluralism through federal rules. The key question is: can federalism be a fair and workable way of articulating multinational societies according to revised liberal-democratic patterns? In recent years, scholarly discussion on this issue has undergone a change. Nowadays, the answer to this question is much more complex than the one that traditional political liberalism and federalism used to give us. In the past, these two political approaches usually addressed the question of political pluralism without seriously including national pluralism in the discussion. A theoretical attitude that has often misrepresented and impoverished the moral discussions and the institutional practices of multinational democratic federations. The author presents a model based on Isaiah Berlin's concept of value pluralism and on the analysis of federal democracies. He also puts forward a critical analysis of the current Spanish territorial model and suggests fourpotential future scenarios for this model based on federal patterns.

This book addresses the democratic accommodation of national pluralism through federal rules. The key question is: can federalism be a fair and workable way of articulating multinational societies according to revised liberal-democratic patterns? In recent years, scholarly discussion on this issue has undergone a change. Nowadays, the answer to this question is much more complex than the one that traditional political liberalism and federalism used to give us. In the past, these two political approaches usually addressed the question of political pluralism without seriously including national pluralism in the discussion, a theoretical attitude that has often misrepresented and impoverished the moral discussions and the institutional practices of multinational democratic federations.

Multinational Federalism and Value Pluralism has been awarded the prize for the best book in 2005 by the Spanish Political Science Association (AECPA).

Ferran Requejo is Professor of Political Science at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. His main fields of research are theories of democracy, federalism, multinational democracies, political theory and political liberalism after World War II. In 1997 he was awarded the Rudolf Wildenmann Prize (ECPR) and in 2002 he received the Ramon Trias Fargas Prize. Among his recent works are: Democracy and National Pluralism (ed) Routledge, 2001 (Spanish version, Ariel, Barcelona, 2002); European Citizenship, Multiculturalism and the State (edited with U. Preuss) Nomos, 1998; "Federalism and the Quality of Democracy in Plurinational Contexts: Present Shortcomings and Possible Improvements", in U. Amoretti-N. Bermeo (eds), Federalism, Unitarianism and Territorial Cleavages, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003; "Federalism and National Groups", International Social Sciences Journal, 2001; "Political liberalism in multinational states: the legitimacy of plural and asymmetrical federalism" in A Gagnon-J.Tully (eds) Multinational Democracies, Cambridge University Press, 2001; "National Pluralism and Federalism. Four Political Scenarios for Spanish Plurinational Democracy", Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 2001; "Cultural Pluralism, Nationalism, and Federalism. A Revision of Democratic Citizenship in Plurinational States", European Journal for Political Research, 1999