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The purpose of this thesis is to examine and re-evaluate the questions involved in federalism and political problems in Nigeria. The strategy adopted in this study is historical, The study examines past, recent, and current literature on federalism and political problems in Nigeria. Basically, the first two chapters outline the historical background and basis of Nigerian federalism and political problems. Chapters three and four consider the evolution of federalism, political problems, prospects of federalism, self-government, and attainment of complete independence on October 1, 1960. Chapters five and six deal with the activities of many groups, crises, military coups, and civil war. The conclusions and recommendations candidly argue that a decentralized federal system remains the safest way for keeping Nigeria together stably.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Westfällische Wilhelms-Universität zu Münster i. W., 1934. / Includes bibliographical references (p. i-vii).

The main focus of this study is on the question of why political institutions change. By extension, the study is also about explaining and predicting the direction of change. Put simply, the study postulates that political institutions will change in order to be congruent with the society. / Change is analysed within the context of two federal structures, the Federal Republic of Germany and Belgium. During the same time period from 1949 to 1993, one transformed from a unitary state into a loose federation while the decentralised federation consolidated and became central. The puzzle which the research project deals with is about this change: Why did the institutions of 1949 fail to survive? / The prevailing institutionalist logic in comparative politics would suggest that once in place, institutions would have socialised the political actors into the existing structure by providing veto points in such a way that institutions would have been reproduced over time, but this has not been the case. Furthermore, why has change come about in two opposing directions, centralising and decentralising, despite many common characteristics between the two cases? / This study is based on a theory of congruence which argues that political institutions change in order to reflect underlying societal structures. More specifically, the argument is that political institutions in federal structures change to correspond to the ethno-linguistic make-up of the country. Accordingly, the unitary state of Belgium has changed its political institutions in order to accommodate the Flemings, Walloons and Bruxellois; while Federal Germany has centralised many issues despite explicit constitutional clauses against such changes. / According to the theory of congruence, when confronted with an ethno-linguistic structure that does not match the political one, the political structure changes; not automatically, but through the pressure of public policy concerns pursued by political actors. The ethno-linguistic community is the primary collectivity for which public policy decisions are made. The choices available to political actors are constrained by the demarcations of this societal composition. Decision makers might disagree over the substance of the policies, but they share the choice of venue in the form of the ethnolinguistic 'nation'. In case of a discrepancy between the ethno-linguistic societal structure and the political structure, public policy concerns wold exert a pressure towards congruence by demarcating a social collectivity for which policies are made different from the one set up by the political institutions. Thus, if the 'nation' is bigger than the unit that marked off by political institutions, the tendency would be towards amalgamation with the other subunits of the 'nation' and centralisation. If, on the other hand, the 'nation' is smaller than the unit defined by the political institutions, there would be devolutionary pressures on the unitary institutions. / The empirical research was carried out on two policy areas, education and mass media, through a paired comparison of Flanders and Wallonia in Belgium and Baden-Wurttemberg and North Rhine Westphalia in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The government of Quebec has officially opposed federal multicultural policy since 1971. Although the provincial response to multiculturalism, now widely known as interculturalisme, began to take shape as of the early 1980s, ethnic minorities in the province continue to be served by distinct federal and provincial bureaucracies. Despite this, federal-provincial relations over ethnic policy in Quebec remain little studied. Provincial rhetoric and many theoretical writings on intergovernmental relations in Canada together give rise to expectations of competition or conflict. However, some specialists in the field warn against overlooking collaboration. In fact, original research undertaken to explore federal-provincial relations in this sensitive policy area produced evidence of collaboration between federal and provincial officials despite divergences of opinion both political and theoretical. In addition, a certain degree of complementarity was noted in federal and provincial funding of ethnocultural and community groups.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-145). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

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Can states formally recognize cultural diversity and, at the same time, preserve their political and social unity and provide the main public goods of modern citizenship? Is such conciliation feasible? Is it morally desirable? In the current context of unprecedented expression and politicization of cultural identities, especially in democratic countries, such questions are more and more crucial. To answer these questions, the present study considers the contribution of the modern federal tradition. Within this tradition, I analyze four federal responses to the unity-diversity dilemma. The first two---the Belgian and Canadian federations---are practical. Each embodies one of the two dominant contemporary models of federalism: classical liberal individualist, and multinational. I study the experience of each country over the past thirty years to compare the effects of the two models on citizenship. The potential of the modern federal tradition is further assessed through an examination of two theoretical and normative reflections, those of Tocqueville and Proudhon. / The central thesis is twofold. First, I contend that in a context of increasing cultural diversity, unity and diversity have an equal value and are both essential to citizenship. This is true both from a moral and from a practical point of view. Second, I argue that the dominant conceptions of federalism are unable to satisfactorily conciliate unity and diversity. Such task requires the development of what I call an intercultural federalism, one centered on the good of identity pluralization or complexitication. From a strictly practical point of view, only an intercultural federalism can prevent identity fragmentation and the political and social fragmentation which come with it. From a moral perspective, intercultural federalism promises not only to protect, but also to maximize the primary goods which are the most affected by identity fragmentation---political liberty and social solidarity---while also promoting individual liberty. Intercultural federalism rests on three principles which summarize the teachings of the modern federal tradition with regard to the establishment of just citizenship institutions in a context of diversity. Such institutions are just in that they protect and maximize the primary goods of citizenship for all citizens. The three principles are: (1) mutual recognition; (2) intercultural dialogue; (3) multi-varied asymmetrical institutionalization.

Within the Canadian government, studies associated with staffing the federal public service have been endemic for over a century. Despite this, concerns about lack of change and dissatisfaction with staffing (too slow, too complex) remain hallmarks. The Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA) was introduced in 2003 as a means to bring about transformative change and yet, following a nearly two year study, the PSMA Review Report (2011) found that virtually no one was satisfied with changes in key aspects of the human resource and staffing regime. A strong desire for change was noted as existing, however, a diluted sense of ownership and powerlessness to change were also noted, even among the most powerful federal communities – deputy ministers, executives, and central agencies. As Canada’s largest employer, with an annual payroll that has been estimated at $22 billion and, with another era of potential change launched with the Public Service Commission’s 2016 introduction of New Directions in Staffing, federal staffing can be viewed as both timely and warranting academic examination. This dissertation combines the strengths of institutional change literature from political science, sociology and economics to examine the institution of federal staffing in the core public administration. It focuses on an extended period of time in order to identify if any substantive changes have occurred despite popular views of negligible change and to examine why change may not have occurred to advance toward the long expressed goal of simplified, efficient staffing of highly qualified (meritorious) public servants. This mixed methods case study uses documentary, archival, and qualitative and quantitative secondary source material as well as input from 49 semi-structured interviews with a variety of Canadian federal managerial and human resource representatives. It identifies and addresses issues that have only at times been identified and, others not typically detailed in government reports, particularly those associated with culture and path dependent history. Issues examined include power relations and key narratives as well as evolving ideas and logics of appropriateness that shape behaviour, some of which continue to exert pressure on current organizational and institutional choices despite having been in existence for, in some cases, 50 or 100 years. Some ideas for change are offered but this study suggests without attention to long-standing and systemic issues only highly incremental change should be expected.

The three Articles that comprise this Dissertation explore how free expression and judicial federalism regulate hurtful speech and promised silence. The Articles tackle torts and free speech, contracts and free speech, and a comparative variation on those two themes. Judicial federalism threads all three Articles. The first Article, Silencing State Courts, argues that the current mode of enforcing the First Amendment against state common law speech torts fails to promote cooperative judicial federalism. Second, Silence for Sale argues that state courts should free themselves from constitutional straitjackets and recognize a robust public policy of free expression that voids some nondisclosure agreements. Finally, Comparative Judicial Federalism argues that the strength of a federal free speech guarantee varies with a country's particular species of judicial federalism. By comparing free speech and judicial federalism in the United States and Australia, it argues that Australia’s judicial federalism augments its implied freedom of political communication.