The Clash of Perspectives? the EU and Russian Views on Federalism/Le Choc des Perspectives? L'ue Et Les Perspectives Russes Sur Le Federalisme (European Union) (Report‪)‬

1. INTRODUCTION The desirability and shortcomings of a federal institutional structure have been subject to intense debate in the European Union and post-communist Russia. The Europeans (2) are yet to agree on the prospects and ramifications of their common political institutions being "upgraded" to a full-blown federal state. Russian federalism, too, is still a project--as attested by more than a decade of roller-coaster center-periphery bargaining and renegotiating--that has so far failed to settle down into a stable political arrangement. (3) Across the board, the critics of federalization have brought up a familiar list of grievances against the surrender of national (in the case of Europe) or central (in the case of Russia) authority. Their concerns encompass the erosion of national power and sovereignty, the weakening of state integrity, and the undermining of governmental responsiveness and accountability. In all of these accounts, traditional, hierarchically-organized national governments are maintained to offer an optimal organizational format for good governance and democracy. Correspondingly, the perceived need to protect the prerogatives of centralized national authority has fueled anti-federalist sentiments in Russia and the EU.