January 31 - February 1, 2025

The conference organized by the Department of Political Science, Luiss University and the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence (within LEAP), Luiss University in honour of Sergio Fabbrini’s work on federalism

The workshop will examine federalizing and de-federalizing processes in Europe and elsewhere, the US and then outside Europe. It will bring together top scholars from different countries to analyse ‘federalizing processes’ which try to balance effectiveness and legitimacy at multiple jurisdictional levels, detect the mechanisms that set them in motion and explore the causes of their continuing evolution. It will look at international pressures arising from factors such as trade or war and cross-national learning as well as exclusively domestic conflicts. It will offer a politico-judicial analysis: federalizing processes are inherently political, as they involve allocation of decision-making powers, but judges also play crucial roles. The conference is part of the preparation of an edited volume to mark Sergio Fabbrini’s work on federalism. It is supported by DISP; the Jean Monnet Centre of LEAP and Sergio Fabbrini’s chair.

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Friday, 31 January

9.00 Sessions open to all members of DISP and LEAP and others by invitation

Institutional greetings: Professor Giovanni Orsina and Professor Valentina Melinciani

9.15-10.30 Roundtable: geoeconomic pressures on the EU and federalist responses

Chair: Professor Maria Savona

The Roundtable will discuss the implications of geoeconomic pressures on Europe and in particular whether they have led to moves towards federalism by EU. It will also compare the EU’s response to those in other polities. The geoeconomic pressures include international trade competition, higher costs from overseas military threats, increased energy prices and the costs of dealing with climate change. These pressures raise major challenges for European nation states which are small-medium sized in world terms, but in recent years, federalism has faced ever greater political resistance. The central question for debate is: has Europe responded by moving towards the EU becoming more federal or have other responses occurred? How do responses concerning EU federalism compare with those in other polities? The Roundtable will therefore look at how geoeconomic pressures have intersected with debates and decisions about EU federalism.

11:00-12.30 Analyzing federalizing processes

Professor Simona Piattoni (Trento) and Professor Mark Thatcher

Chair: Professor Cristina Fasone

Lead discussants: Professor Louise Tillin and Professor Bruce Cain

Lunch 12.30-13.30

13.30-16.00 Federalizing processes in existing federations: responding to pressures for change

This part of the workshop concerns federalizing processes in response to pressure for change in existing federations. It focuses on alterations in the distribution of powers and resources between levels and their implications for change in the nature of the federation.

Bruce Cain (Stanford University), ‘Adaptive Federalism: The Shifting Contours of American Government and Climate Change’

Kent Eaton (University of California at Santa Cruz), ‘Federalizing Processes in Latin America’

Louise Tillin (King’s College London), ‘Reforming Federalism in India: Processes, Politics and Actors’

Arthur Benz (Technical University of Darmstadt), ‘The ever-changing nature of federalism: The cases of Germany and Canada’

16.30-17:00 Coffee break

17:00-19:00 Federalizing processes and creating a new federation: The case of the EU

Chair: Professor Nicola Lupo (tbc)

This part of the workshop deals with the issue of the emergence of federations today by looking at the most debated example, namely the EU. It underlines that despite pressures that the classic literature has identified as driving federalization, strong constraints have limited the moved of the EU towards becoming a federation.

Adrienne Héritier (EUI), ‘Federalization vs Sovereignty: Countervailing Forces in the European Union’

James Caporaso (University of Washington), ‘European Federalism and the Nation State: Customized Policies in the Face of Centralizing Pressures and Divergent National Preferences’

Michelle Egan (American University), ‘Federalizing Processes in Trade Policy: the EU on the light of the US experience’

Dinner for workshop participants

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Saturday, 1 February

9.00-11.00 Federalizing processes and creating a new federation: The case of the EU (cont)

Sergio Fabbrini (Luiss), ‘Why has Riker lost the road to Brussels?’

Tomasz P. Woźniakowski (University of Wrocław), ‘Federalizing Processes in EU Fiscal Policy’

Thomas Christiansen (Luiss) and Giulia Gallinella (Luiss) ‘Executives and federalism: the case of EU rulemaking’

11:00-11:30 Coffee break

11.30-13.00 Federalizing processes and democracy

This part examines the relationships between federalizing processes and democracy. It engages with debates about whether democratization is essential for federalization but also conversely how federalizing processes link to debates about democracy

Alexander Libman (Freie Universität Berlin) and Michael Rochlitz (Oxford University), ‘Why do non-democratic states introduce federalist institutions?’

Yves Mény (EUI/Sciences Po Paris), ‘EU Federalism: An ideal scapegoat for populist movements’

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00- 15.30 Federalizing processes and democracy (cont)

Daniel Ziblatt (Harvard University), ‘Revisiting the Nexus of Federalism and Democracy: the cases of Germany and the United States’

Vivien Schmidt (Boston University), ‘Federalizing Processes and the discursive construction of Europe’

John-Erik Fossum (ARENA and University of Oslo), ‘Federalization and democratization in the European integration process’

15.30-16.30 Conclusions and next steps

Simona Piattoni and Mark Thatcher