Policy Coordination in Federal Systems: Comparing Intergovernmental Processes and Outcomes in Canada and the United States

The dynamics of advancing climate policy in federal political systems

“…). We reinforce the identified challenges that countries with different political systems face in the development and implementation of international climate agreements(Harrison & Sundstrom, 2007;Hovi et al, 2009), particularly for federal countries(Bakvis & Brown, 2010a;Engel, 2009;Harrison, 2013; Rabe, 2004; Thomson & Arroyo, 2011). Given time, the change in political leadership may enable the province to present the opposite case of its historic climate free-ridership, demonstrating the importance of understanding dynamics in federal political systems.Our findings point to the potential for broader, global importance of understanding how political systems may influence the emissions outcomes of climate policies across scales of governance, from subnational to international.…”

“…For example, the structure of Canada's federal system requires coordination across provinces/territories with jurisdictional autonomy, whereas in the United States, subnational governments are coordinated through central legislative authority or policy convergence at the state-level (Bakvis & Brown, 2010a). That is, the federal government in the United States has more power to enforce regulation on the states in this domain compared with the federal government in Canada. In both cases, the subnational governments can take the lead in the absence of national oversight.…”

“…This type of federalism is another variant present in federal political systems and is more akin to the dominant dynamics in Canada (Fertel, Bahn, Vaillancourt, & Waaub, 2013), where environmental jurisdiction more clearly falls to the provinces (the subnational order of government). Specifically, the Canadian federalist system often requires coordination across provinces/territories that have jurisdictional autonomy protected by constitutional law (Bakvis & Brown, 2010b). If the federal government commits to an agreement without the buy-in from subnational governments, the commitment is unlikely to be met.…”

“…Although there is a growing literature on climate policy in federal systems (Bakvis & Brown, 2010a;Engel, 2009;Harrison, 2013;Harrison & Sundstrom, 2007;Rabe, 2004;Rabe, 2011), the multilevel political dynamics influencing climate policy-and subsequently emissions outcomes and investments in low-carbon technology-within federalist political systems in remains relatively underexplored. Federalism is one such institutional variant, which distributes power between a central authority (federal government) and constituent units (subnational governments, such as states or provinces).…”

Intergovernmental Fiscal Cooperation: International Experiences and Possible Lessons for Brazil

“…Cooperation across and within levels of government may require participant governments to pursue policies that are different from those that would have been selected in the absence of cooperation (Bakvis and Brown, 2010). Therefore, to choose to participate in cooperation arrangements, governments must believe that the benefits of such arrangements outweigh the costs associated with the corresponding loss of decision-making autonomy.…”