“Federalism against its challenges: crisis, polarization and populism” (FEDCRISIS) is a national project led by our fellows Amuitz Garmendia and Sandra León and funded through a grant by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-128287NB-I00, 2022-2025).
This project explores the functioning of federalism and decentralization in the face of three challenges: crisis, polarization and populism. Its aim is to provide a better understanding of the effects of crises on public opinion attitudes towards the (de) centralization of power; explore the challenges posed for accountability by the growing affective polarization and study the relationship between the center-periphery cleavage and the political discourse of radical right-wing populist parties. Federalism and decentralization have been championed around the world on the promise of better governance, economic efficiency, and the appeasement of ethnic conflicts. As the literature has shown, the consequences of such institutional reforms have been mixed: in some cases, federal institutions have helped to reinforce democratic
transitions and reduce ethnic conflict, while in other cases federal arrangements have been dangerous and proven in fiscal mismanagement, separatist conflict, and decreased accountability. This project aims to measure the democratic and efficient promises of multilevel governance in the face of the challenges that crises, increased polarization and populism pose on institutional arrangements and the functioning of federal and decentralized systems. This project aims to measure the democratic and efficiency-specific promises of multilevel governance against the challenges that economic crisis, the upsurge of polarization and the covid-19 pandemic pose to the institutional arrangements and operation of federal and decentralized systems.
