Countries studied include the United States, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, and Germany as examples of developed industrial societies; India and Malaysia as examples of multilingual and multicultural federations; Belgium and Spain as examples of emerging federal systems that illustrate bicommunal and asymmetrical approaches; and Czechoslovakia and Pakistan as examples of bicommunal federations that have failed. Watts compares the interaction of social diversity and political institutions, distribution of powers and finances, processes contributing to flexibility or rigidity in adjustment, extent of internal symmetry or asymmetry, degree of centralization and decentralization, character of representation in federal institutions, role of constitutions and courts, provisions for constitutional rights and secession, and pathology of federations. Comparing Federal Systems in the 1990s makes an important contribution to our understanding of federal systems in the modern world, and contributes to the continuing Canadian debate about future constitutional, political, and economic arrangements.

Ronald L. Watts is principal emeritus and professor emeritus, political studies, and fellow and former director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen's University, and fellow of the international Forum of Federations. From 1991 to 1998

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