FEDERALISM IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
Federalism served to divide power in the State, improve the efficiency of public administration and resolve conflicts in divided societies. These objectives may be complementary or competing. Federal design issues included: problem definition; unit delimitation; symmetry and asymmetry; power-sharing; intergovernmental cooperation; federal culture; financial autonomy and alignment; and individual and collective rights; and external guarantees. European integration has had a significant impact on the federal and decentralized systems. In post-war Western Europe, there was a trend towards cooperative federalism and a dilution of the responsibilities of the two layers. In recent years, there had been a shift towards competitive federalism and clarification of the role of the levels. Fiscal alignment had been threatened with collapse. Many proposals have been put forward, some of them successful and others not, to reform federal and decentralized systems in the interests of efficiency, clarity and accountability. The success of federalism depended in part on historical politics, political culture, domestic and external economic trends. However, institutional design plays a role in providing appropriate incentives for political actors and in balancing centrifugal and centripetal trends.