POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Chechnya, Mikhail Gorbachev, Primorsky Krai
15 Apr 2013
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Pol354 lecture 17 federalism cont"d/regional & local politics. Last week a number of criteria for federalism was outlines: Entrenchment of the powers of the different levels of government in a constitution. A division of powers in the constitution. This division of powers could be asymmetrical as long as there was a general acceptance of this division. Must be a recognized, legitimate, independent party that serves as an arbiter of conflicts. (constitutional court). This court must be independent operate outside of the direct influence of those who appointed it and those who hold asymmetrical positions of power. These criteria are important because (1) there was a fundamental commitment of the leaders to develop democracy and (2) the soviet/imperial legacy lacked these criteria the old russian empire was not a federalist region. Under the soviet union there was an apparent separation of power in theory, because of the monopoly of power of the communist party, federalism did not exist in practice.
