Intergovernmental Relations

1
Intergovernmental Relations

• Forum of Federations
• Intensive Course on
• Democratic Federalism

2
OVERVIEW

• What are intergovernmental relations (IGR)?
• Why are they important?
• Patterns of intergovernmental relations
• The tasks of intergovernmental relations
• Some examples
• IGR in the Iraqi Federation
• Observations and Conclusions

3
WHAT ARE INTERGOVERMENTAL RELATIONS (IGR)?

• A federal constitution establishes the structure
  of government IGR bring the structure to life
• The constitution is the structure IGR are the
  process the way in which the necessary business
  of the federation gets done
• Two types
• Relations between the central government and the
  provinces or states (vertical)
• Relations among the provinces or the states
  themselves (horizontal)
• No real watertight compartments overlap,
  entanglement, sharing
• Powers and responsibilities in modern federations
  cannot be cleanly divided between two orders of
  government hence they have to work together
  IGR
• In some federations, powers and responsibilities
  are concurrent or shared in various ways hence
  IGR
• Involves both politicians and officials

4
WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?

• Federal constitutions are usually difficult to
  amend, fairly rigid
• For this and other reasons, governments must work
  with and against one another as circumstances
  change
• In all cases, intergovernmental relations are an
  inevitable, vital and omnipresent feature of
  functioning federations
• They constitute one of the most important
  instruments of flexibility in a federal political
  system. Some others are
• The utilization of concurrent jurisdiction
• The intergovernmental delegation of legislative
  powers and administrative responsibilities
• Opting in and opting out arrangements
• Intergovernmental agreements and accords

5
PATTERNS IF INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS I

• Parliamentary federations
• Executive and legislature fused
• Power concentrated in the executive within each
  government and dispersed among governments
• Executive federalism
• Congressional federations
• Executive and legislature separated
• Power dispersed both within and among governments
• IGR dispersed

6
PATTERNS OF INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS II

• How formal? How institutionalized?
• Intergovernmental cooperation as a constitutional
  principle
• The role of the second chamber/upper house
• Councils, committees and other intergovernmental
  bodies
• Informal norms, practices and meetings

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THE TASKS OF INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS I

• Primary functions
• Putting the provisions of the Constitution into
  action
• Resolving conflicts between the federal partners
• Adapting governing and policy arrangements to
  changing circumstances

8
TASKS OF INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS II

• Fiscal/financial issues sorting out revenue and
  expenditure arrangements
• Negotiating fiscal transfers, typically from the
  federal to provincial and regional governments
• Regulating intergovernmental competition, policy
  overlap, policy coordination

9
SOME EXAMPLES

• Germany and South Africa IGR as a constitutional
  principle
• Germany Bundestreue cooperative governance
  and loyalty to the federation
• South Africa Chapter 3 Cooperative Government
  governments to cooperate with one another in
  mutual trust and good faith.
• Germany the upper house as an IGR institution
• India, Malaysia financial commissions and
  councils
• Canada informal processes of executive federalism

10
IGR IN THE IRAQI FEDERATION

• To be discussed by the group