It is often said that national borders are no longer a major economic factor and that, as a result of free trade agreements and market globalization, they do not represent a barrier to trade in goods and services.

2014 will be an historic year for the Scots, as they will be called by their government to vote in a referendum on the political status of their community.

Sometimes, it is good to remember that we are privileged to be members of a federation that offers citizens the possibility to get away from decisions by their provincial governments that they find unacceptable.

There is little discussion of relations between the provinces in Canada. When the newspapers mention the topic, it is typically in terms of implausibility or dysfunctionality.

For some time, there has been a chorus of calls to curb the number of immigrants admitted annually into Québec, in the name of protecting the French language.

Since 1972, Hydro-Québec has received about 30 terawatt hours (TWh) per year of hydroelectricity from Labrador: enough to meet the electricity consumption of 45% of Québec households in 2012.

Among democratic federations, the Canadian Senate looks astonishing on more than one count. Its members are not elected, but appointed by the federal executive. Senators keep their seat until they turn 75.

Canada has been negotiating a comprehensive economic and commercial agreement with the European Union (EU) since 2009. CETA would be the first agreement of this type between rich countries, and would very likely serve as an international model.

Since the May 2, 2011, federal election there has been much talk about a merger between the New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party of Canada.

The exercise, inaptly named “repatriation of the constitution”, consisted of adopting a constitutional amendment procedure, since such a procedure had not been adopted in 1931 when Canada became independent.

The question of the political unity of multinational federations arises in a context where the accommodation of ethno-cultural minorities or historically disadvantaged groups is considered not only a moral norm, but a good strategy.

Since the federal elections on May 2 we have heard and read all sorts of explanations for the results of the Quebec vote. Unfortunately those explanations are not very convincing…

Nationalist movements that call for independence or greater political autonomy for their communities are bearers of an essentially political scheme.

Federalists have always maintained that the European monetary union will remain fragile as long as it is not matched with a political union.

Owing to the high degree of collaboration between the executive power of the federal government and that of each of the federated states (Länder), German federalism is often characterized as “executive federalism.”

For more than a decade now, a good number of people, in both political and academic circles, have been declaring that the ideas of the founding fathers of the European Union, especially the idea of a federal Europe, are outdated. Yet, the announcement of the establishment of the Spinelli Group, on September 15, by four Euro-MPs, including onetime May 68 leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, would seem to be proving them wrong.