Federalism in Contestation: Changing Architecture of Identity, Territory, Governance, and Politics of Development

Federalism is not only an institutional mechanism to accommodate regional, ethnic, cultural, political, and linguistic diversity, but it plays an important role in balancing central rule with self-rule. However, contemporary trends of change within societies and states are transforming established federal norms and arrangements. The architecture of federal governance is being reshaped by various factors of growing nationalism, centralisation, identity mobilisation, development disparities, aspirations of fiscal solidarity, and changing migration patterns.
This panel examines federalism as a political contestation process, and seeks to understand how these struggles over territory, identity, authority, and development are altering relations among national, regional, and local governments. The focal point centres around the federal response to competing demands for territorial redistribution, autonomy, representation, and justice. The panel seeks to move beyond conventional centre–state approaches and examine federalism as a dynamic and contested process. Along-with, it explores the potential of federal institutions to manage inequality, diversity, conflict, and growing demands for representational justice. It brings together different perspectives on territory, governance, identity, and development.
The panel welcomes analytical, theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions exploring federal and quasi-federal arrangements across the Globe. The panel aims to add comparative insights by addressing the various questions of; changing contours of centre–region relations under political centralisation tendencies and democratic uncertainty, the accommodation of regional identities and autonomy demands, the role of developmental and fiscal inequalities in strengthening or undermining federal bargains, the role of regional political actors in reshaping the federal polity, and the role of decentralised and layered governance in the redistribution of economic and political power etc. The panel also speaks directly to the Congress theme, “Uncertain Democracies: Rethinking Governance in a Changing Global System,” by exploring whether federal and multilayered institutions and governance systems can remain effective instruments of democratic space amid contemporary socioeconomic and political transformations.