Raoul Blindenbacher and R. Watts suggested that to consider federal institutions as mere expressions of federal societies is one sided.
Federal institutions once created in turn shape and influen
There is a complex relationship, which is not unilateral, between society, its institutions and its constitution.
USA and Switzerland are two older federations emerged from an earlier weak centre and certainly the new institutions had an impact in transforming society.
Cont’d
The post-1991 federal system in Ethiopia, too, has radically changed the political process since then. Thus, the specific society under which the federal system operates and the institutions matter.
Nicolas Schmitt stipulates for a federation to be a successful political structure it must be honest to its proclaimed nature.
That is to say, it should be a federation in form as well as in operational reality.
Cont’d
Others have emphasized the importance of democratic pluralism and the existence of decentralized party system. ‘Federalism cannot exist without democratic pluralism which permits groups really to be autonomous.
It is sometimes argued that an authoritarian one party system which by definition concentrates all political power in the hands of one group at one central point, is incompatible with the federal concept of divided power.’
Chapter Three Federations and Second Chambers
Bicameralism is correlated not only with the form, but also the size of the state.
In many countries, such as Britain and France, the second chamber has developed from a system of class-based representation, where the “upper” and “lower” chambers represented the respective classes.
In contrast, in many federal states - such as Australia, Canada and the US - the second chamber was designed to represent the regions or states involved in the federation, whilst the lower chamber represented the population as a whole.
