連邦制と行為主体の多様化-EU統合とベルギーの連邦化改革を事例に-
国際的行為主体の再検討
1998 年 1998 巻 119 号 p. 11-25,L6
詳細
1998 年 1998 巻 119 号 p. 11-25,L6
“Federalism” is a concept aiming to cope with both unity and diversity, while “federation” is a political system that realizes this concept. So far federation has been rarely dealt in the field of international relations, because federalization of a certain state has little influence on nation-state system. But federalization should have an important meaning in the development of the transnational integration. This paper aims to reconsider federation and subnational actors (federal entities) in the context of European integration.
As Europe stepped toward integration, subnational actors (regions or local authorities) have gained more effect on the EU decision-making, for example, in the field of regional policy by establishment of the Committee of the Regions. This tendency is based on the “principle of subsidiarity”, which got widely noticed in the late 1980s and was expressed in the Maastricht Treaty. Subsidiarity has become an important concept for supporters of federalism movement in the European integration.
In Belgium, four constitutional revisions have been made over thirty years to transform the formerly centralized unitary state into a federal state, as a solution for the serious conflicts between two liguistic groups, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking. The most important feature of the Belgian federal system is the existence of two different federal entities, that is “Region” and “Community”. The former is based on the territory and has its competence concerning regional economy, industrialization, environment, and so on, while the latter is related to language and culture, having its competence about education, language policies, and other personal matters. Moreover, Belgian subnational governments got the privileges to participate in the Council of Ministers of the EU concerning issues that relate to the competence of federal entities.
Federalism and federation have more important meanings for international relations today. Federalization of a certain state causes an increase in the number of actors and makes the relations among actors more complicated and cooperative.
