Summer University 2007

The complete publication of the students' best papers provided for the course of the second week, can be downloaded here.

Program

Federalism, Constitutionalism and Democratic Governance in Multicultural Societies

• First week: (course and workshops)
  Federalism, Institutional Designs and Constitutional Processes, with Prof. J. KINCAID and Prof. Th. FLEINER
  
  

• Second week: (course and workshops)
  Federalism in Multicultural and Multinational Polities, with Prof. U. K. PREUSS and Prof. L. R. BASTA FLEINER
  
  

• Third week: (case studies)

African Union - A United States of Africa? with Dr. Nandini PATEL
Federalism, State Formation and Failed States in South Asia, with Dr. Alexander FISCHER
Negotiating and Designing Power-Sharing Mechanisms Within a Unitary State, with Dr. Nicole TOEPPERWIEN

The Summer University is organised around three major modules. This year, the first addresses various institutional aspects of nation-state and supranational forms of federalism, including the European Union. In the second are addressed the major challenges that federalism and decentralisation face in multicultural societies with a theoretical approach. The third focuses on some of the major issues discussed in the first or second week. While in the first two weeks the work runs through interactive classes and workshops, in the third week the professors guide students' work in groups on given cases and the results are discussed in plenum.

The major objectives of the Summer University are a) to bring the participants, through the classes, workshops, case studies and individual papers prepared in advance, major challenges that the modern state and multicultural societies face when embracing federalism and decentralisation as strategies of democratisation and conflict-management; b) given the interdisciplinary approach in teaching as well as the interdisciplinary academic background of the participants, to empower them with insights from different disciplines and thus generally enforce their understanding on the issues of federalism, decentralisation and diversity; and c) to sensibilize participants, through the classes and workshops, as well as through debates they will have among themselves – to a major need to understand also the arguments of the “other side” and the critical importance of consensus in multicultural societies.

The members of the faculty are internationally known scholars with expertise in the issues of post-modern challenges to nation-state and democracy, federalism, decentralisation and multiculturalism. The Summer University is organised by the Institute of Federalism and co-financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.