Comparing Canada, the European Union, and NAFTA: Comparative Capers and Constitutional Conundrums. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 3 No. 4, August 2003

(From the introduction). This is an exercise in comparative analysis. The paper examines Canada, the European Union, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Its underlying premise - that political systems are best seen in comparative context - is an article of faith for students of comparative politics. Students of the European Union who began with the study of one or more of its member-states will have little problem with this, while those who started from International Relations and European integration studies will have greater doubts. Pooling the sovereignties of fifteen or more member-states, the European Union is in some respects sui generis. Although to be sure, it can be considered a multilevel system of governance, in some respects different from the federations with which it is often compared, the European Union is different enough to make any serious student of comparative politics pause. The EU, like many federal systems has complex decision-making procedures and impinges on the decision-making and sovereignty of its member-states, and appears as a single actor in international trade negotiations, but in other respects, it is very different: unlike many settled federations, the EU unites no well-defined people, and its inability to act as a single actor in foreign affairs or defense was documented well before current splits on Iraq and the Middle East. Difference has never stopped thoughtful students of comparative politics. The old adage that you can’t compare apples and oranges is easily met by noting that both are fruits. The EU may lack many features of federations but it is a complex multilevel system that may bear closer resemblance to lesser studied entities such as leagues and confederations. Examining the EU in comparative context is worthwhile not only because it gives us a clearer sense of what the EU is and is not, and how it has changed over time, but also because such regional systems like the EU are likely to become more common in an interdependent world.1 This paper is unorthodox: it compares the EU to another large trading bloc, the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and to one of its components, Canada. Comparing the EU and NAFTA is straightforward and obvious enough. The two regional systems take in almost all of the world’s largest economies but are sufficiently different in their governance and politics that comparison in most areas can do little more than highlight difference. Comparing Canada and the EU is another matter. To some, the comparison may sound absurd, and appear to compare fruit and vegetables rather than apples and oranges. Nevertheless, Canada is a federation and a state, with membership in international organizations. However, it is not a pattern state from which models and theories have been extracted and does not figure prominently in the comparative literature. Like the EU, Canada can be considered unique and sui generis. It is difficult to find another country held together by two single-track railways, two broadcasting networks, (until recently) two airlines, and one very long border. That said, Canada’s center-periphery tensions, constitutional disputes, and disintegrative tendencies make it a case about which students of comparative politics should know more. The utility of this comparison will become more obvious if we consider not only current politics, but also the construction of the Canadian confederation (the official term), which was in some respects a battle, if not against nature, against geography and the pull of easier north-south relationships. We will begin by comparing the EU and NAFTA, highlighting differences and similarities, and then develop the more complex, but in many ways more tantalizing, Canada-EU comparison, and show why it is particularly relevant at a time, when the European Union’s constitution, like Canada’s, is in discussion

The Welfare Effects of Tax Competition Reconsidered: Politicians and Political Institutions

The views on the welfare effects of tax competition differ widely. Some see the fiscal externalities as the cause for underprovision of public goods, while others see tax competition as means to reduce government inefficiencies. Using a comparative politics approach we show that tax competition among presidential-congressional democracies is typically welfare improving, while harmful among parliamentary democracies if under the latter the marginal benefit of the public good is sufficiently high. The results hold when politicians seek re-election because of exogenous benefits of holding office. By contrast, when politicians hold office only to extract rents, tax competition is harmful if politicians are sufficiently patient.Tax competition; welfare effects; comparative politics approach

Critical connections : Islamic politics and political economy in Indonesia and Malaysia

This article explores Islamic politics in two Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia, by linking their trajectories, from late colonial emergence to recent upsurge, to broad concerns of political economy, including changing social bases, capitalist transformation, state policies, and economic crises. The Indonesian and Malaysian trajectories of Islamic politics are tracked in a comparative exercise that goes beyond the case studies to suggest that much of contemporary Islamic politics cannot be explained by reference to Islam alone, but to how Islamic identities and agendas are forged in contexts of modern and profane social contestation.Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Internal politics, Islam, Islamization, State, Economic transformation, Economic crises, Populism

Territorial Institutions

Territorial politics as social and political constructs are major issues for governement and for policy-making. Studying its properties and its dynamics shapes a domain of its own in social sciences. The text presents dominant approaches that have structured knowledge in the last thirty years about center-periphery relationships. Is also summarizes key findings from a comparative perspectiveterritories; nation-state dynamics; state theories; interorganizational systems; comparative contexts

Rethinking Globalization and Continuing Relevance of the aoStatea in Comparative Politics

Comparative politics is one of the sub-fields within the academic discipline of political science as well as an approach to the study of politics and development across countries As a field of study comparative politics focuses on understanding and explaining political phenomena that take place within a state society country or political system However it should be noted that while the field of comparative politics continues to change over time it is important to note that its definition too changes This paper therefore provides a comprehensive debate on the ontology epistemology and methodology within the entire field of comparative politics with critical reflections on the continuing relevance of the states in a globalizing world As a critical reflection this paper is not wedded to any single world-view or conclusion about globalization As a whole this paper is guided by the proposition that despite the assault on the state from a number of directions its role will remain central to the study of comparative politics as well as in the contemporary era of globalizatio

The comparative politics of courts and climate change

Disappointment with international efforts to find legal solutions to climate change has led to the emergence of a new generation of climate policy. This includes the emergence of courts as new ‘battlefields in climate fights’. Cross-national comparative analysis of the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia supplements research that has found that litigation plays an important governance gap-filling role in jurisdictions without comprehensive national-level climate change policies. The inductive research design identifies patterns in climate change litigation. The three countries illustrate the varieties of climate policies, and thus serve as a useful entry point for thinking more generally about the interplay between climate politics and legal mobilisation. To improve theoretical understandings of the role of courts in climate change politics, the range of litigants and the variety of cases brought to courts under the umbrella of the term ‘climate change litigation’ are identified

'But you can't compare Malawi and Ireland!' - shifting boundaries in a globalised world

Although global influences - in the form of international finance coupled with discourses of partnership, participation, good governance, and democracy - exercise an increasing influence on national and local governance arrangements worldwide, comparative studies across the traditional South/North divide remain extremely rare. Drawing on findings from a comparative study of Malawi's PRSP and Ireland's national Social Partnership process, this article demonstrates that a shifting of conceptual boundaries beyond traditionally delineated geographic borders is not just valid but essential, in that it helps to reveal new perspectives on the politics underlying globalised development processes and the transformative potential of those processes

An ontological politics of comparative environmental analysis: the green economy and local diversity

This article contributes to comparative environmental politics by integrating comparative analysis with debates about ontological politics as well as science and technology studies. Comparative environmental analysis makes two tacit assumptions: that the subject of comparison (e.g., an environmental policy framework) is mobile and can be detached from its contexts; and that studying this subject in more than one location can identify its diffusion and implementation anywhere. These assumptions are sites of ontological politics by predetermining (or restricting) environmental outcomes. Environmental analysis needs to consider how its own comparative acts might reify supposedly global frameworks rather than acknowledging how different localities appropriate and give meaning to them in diverse ways. The concept of civic epistemologies illustrates how domestic politics are organized around supposedly global concepts, rather than how global concepts diffuse around the world, as illustrated here by a comparative analysis of the United Nations’ Green Economy Initiative

Pharmacovigilance in the European Union: Practical Implementation across Member States

Comparative Politics; Political Economy; European Union Politics; Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilanc