»Federalism. Reason - Meaning - Impact«

Federalism, a supreme state principle of the constitutional order (Article 79 GG), has, since its inception, been the subject matter of an immense number of expositions, both as a constitutional principle and in its individual problems. This exposition is not designed to complicate the matter further. Rather, it is about providing a deeper understanding in two ways, something that should have been done a long time ago: The first main section is about constitutional justifications of the normative content of federalism in its traditional and well-established static forms, such as majorities, equality and gradation of the constituent states. Federal legitimacy derived from democracy is above all about citizen proximity, in the rule of law it is justified as a dividing form of order, when it comes to social statehood it sees here the effective welfare state, and freedom is to be secured through the division of power. The second main section is about reinforcement effects as well as the threats of federalism for statehood in Germany.