Multinational Federalism and Value Pluralism: The Spanish Case (Regional and Federal Studies Series)

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).

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.

Book cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 2 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Contents......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 Part I: Political liberalism and multinational democracies......Page 15 1. The quality of democracy in multinational contexts......Page 17 2. Democratic legitimacy and national pluralism......Page 32 Part II: Multinational democracies and federalism......Page 47 3. Federalism, federations and national pluralism......Page 49 4. Plural federalism......Page 66 Part III: Plural federalism and the Spanish Estado de las Autonomías......Page 74 5. The Spanish Estado de las Autonomías......Page 76 6. Future scenarios for Spanish multinational democracy......Page 86 Notes......Page 105 References......Page 123 Index......Page 132 "Multinational Federalism and Value Pluralism explores the possibilities for the democratic accommodation of national pluralism through federalism. It will interest students and researchers of federalism and nationalism, as well as those with a particular interest in the politics of contemporary Spain."--Résumé de l'éditeur "Multinational Federalism and Value Pluralism explores the possibilities for the democratic accommodation of national pluralism through federalism. It will interest students and researchers of federalism and nationalism, as well as those with a particular interest in the politics of contemporary Spain."--Jacket.