nationalistic overtones, is fascist is a debasement of political vocabulary (see
neo-fascismandnew right).
Fascism was almost certainly a unique response to a particular historical
context, and as a label the word has very little place in our contemporary set of
political categories. However, in the mouths of modern radicals a fascist is
simply anyone whom they think is fairly right-wing. It has also come to be
applied to anyone of extreme views, especially if verbal or physical violence is
used by such a person as a political weapon. Hence one sometimes hears
references to ‘the fascism of the left’ as well as to that of the right.
Federalism
Originally federation indicated a loose alliance or union of states for limited
purposes, usually military or commercial; and as such it could hardly be
distinguished fromconfederacy. In the 18th century, however, the newly-
independent American colonies developed a model of federal government
which combined a strong role for the central or national authority with a
degree of independence for the hitherto autonomous states. ‘Federalism’ is
now used to describe such a form of government, in which power is
constitutionally divided between different authorities in such a way that each
exercises responsibility for a particular set of functions and maintains its own
institutions to discharge those functions. In a federal system each authority
therefore hassovereigntywithin its own sphere of responsibilities, because
the powers which it exercises are not delegated to it by some other authority.
Federalism is often seen as a complex and cumbersome method of govern-
ment because it involves a number of potentially overlapping jurisdictions and
the maintenance of similar institutions at each level of administration; in the
USA, for example, the presidency and Congress have equivalents in every state
in a governor and state legislature. Federation is typically used in heteroge-
neous societies where it is thought necessary to allow distinct areas as much
political autonomy as possible. Switzerland, with its different linguistic and
religious groupings, is an example that has a history of federal association going
back to the 13th century, although the modern Swiss Federation dates from
- In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as progress was made towards
economic andpolitical unionin theEuropean Union, very different
interpretations were put upon federalism. Most member governments saw it
as a system for allowing policy-making to take place at the national level
wherever appropriate, while the British government in particular saw it as
indicatingcentralization(see alsosubsidiarity).
The federal model was much favoured by British governments in the process
of decolonization because it allowed small entities to be linked together for
Federalism