Aetolians, Europeans and Canadians: A Comparative analysis of federations

Economou, Emmanouel/Marios/Lazaros and Kyriazis, Nicholas (2014): Aetolians, Europeans and Canadians: A Comparative analysis of federations.

Abstract

In the present essay we begin with a short presentation of the Aetolian proto-federation and compare its structure and institutions with two modern ones, that of Canada and that of the European Union. We will then make an evaluation of the three federations according to two sets of criteria. a) Democratisation, which contains four sub-criteria: “isonomia” (equality in front of the law) “isokratia” (political equality), “isegoria” (equality to propose initiatives) and “isopoliteia” (single citizenship, the transfer of the political rights of a citizen of a state, when he moves to another within the federation) b) Cohesion, which comprises the following four sub-criteria : i) monetary union, ii) fiscal union and federal budget iii) federal regulation and the basic economic freedoms, of goods and services, capital and labour and iv) common external and defence policy. The results of the evaluation show that according to the criterion of democratisation, the Aetolian ranks first and the EU last, while according to cohesion, the Aetolian ranks first and the EU last, while according to cohesion, the Aetolian and Canadian rank as about equal while the EU again lags behind.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Federations, democratization, cohesion, Aetolian Federation, Canada, EU
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H56 - National Security and War; H - Public Economics > H6 - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt > H61 - Budget ; Budget Systems; H - Public Economics > H7 - State and Local Government ; Intergovernmental Relations > H77 - Intergovernmental Relations ; Federalism ; Secession; N - Economic History > N9 - Regional and Urban History > N93 - Europe: Pre-1913; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z18 - Public Policy

References

References

Ancient authors

Aristotle “Politics”, (Ar. Pol.). Livy “History of Rome”, (Liv. Hist.). Polybius “Histories” (Pol. Hist.).

Modern authors

Bélanger, C. (2007), Canadian Federalism–Division of Powers, http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/readings/Canadadivisionofpowers.html, Retrieved, on April 6, 2014.

Caspari, M.O.B. (1917), “A survey of Greek federal coinage”, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 37, 168-183.

Cohen, E. (1997), Athenian Economy and Society: A Banking Perspective. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Crawford, M. (1985), Coinage and Money under the Roman Republic. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Cronin, E.T. (1999), Direct Democracy: The Politics of Initiative Referendum and Recall. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

Davids, K. and M. t’ Hart, M. (2012) “The navy and the rise of the state: The Case of the Netherlands c. 1570-1810”. In J. Backhaus, N. Kyriazis and N. Rodger, (eds), Navies and State Formation (pp. 273-316). Berlin: Lang Verlag.

de Figueiredo and Weingast (2005), Self-enforcing federalism, Journal of Law, Economics and Organisation, 21, 103-135.

De Laix, R. A. (1973), “The silver coinage of the Aetolian League”, Californian Studies in Classical Antiquity, 6, 47-75.

Economou, EML, Kyriazis, N. and Metaxas, T. (under review), The institutional and economic foundations of regional proto-federations.

Engen, D. (2005), Ancient Greenbacks, Athenian owls, the law of Nicophon, and the Greek economy, Historia, 54(4), 359-381.

Grainger, J.D. (1999), The league of the Aitolians. Leiden and Boston: Brill Academic Pub.

Halkos G. and Kyriazis, N. (2006), “Is tax competition harmful and is the EU an optimal tax area? European Journal of Law and Economics, 21, 163–177.

Halkos G. and Kyriazis, N. (2010), “The Athenian economy in the age of Demosthenes,” European Journal of Law and Economics, 29, 255-277.

Kyriazis, N. and Zouboulakis, M. (2004), Democracy, sea power and institutional change: An economic analysis of the Athenian naval law, European Journal of Law and Economics, 17, 117-132.

Kyriazis, N. (2009), “Financing the Athenian State: Public Choice in the Age of Demosthenes,” European Journal of Law and Economics, 27, 109-127.

Kyriazis, N. and Economou E.M.L. (2013), Macroculture, sports and democracy in Classical Greece, European Journal of Law and Economics, DOI: 10.1007/s10657-013-9390-3.

Larsen, J.A.O. (1952), The Assembly of the Aetolian League, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 83, 1-33.

Le Duc (2011), Electoral Reform and Direct Democracy in Canada: When Citizens become Involved, West European Politics, 34(3), 551-567.

MacKil, E. (2013), Creating a common polity. Berkeley and Los, Angeles: University of California Press.

Mendelsohn, M. and Parkin, A. (2005), “Introducing Direct democracy in Canada”, in Howe, P., Johnston, R. and Blais, A. (eds.). Strengthening Canadian Democracy (pp. 315-359). Montreal Quebec: The Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP).

Mitsos, M. T. (1947), “Thermika and Panaitolika”, Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 16(4), 256-261.

Μetaxas, T and Economou, E.M. (2012), Security Policy in the European Union and the United States through the issue of their defence expenditures, Journal of Global Analysis, 3(1), 58-81.

Noe, S. P. (1962), The Corinth hoard of 1938, ANSMN, 10, 9-41.

Matsuaka, J. (2005a), The eclipse of legislatures: Direct Democracy in the 21st century, Public Choice, 124, 157-177 Musgrave, R. A. (1961), “Approaches to a fiscal theory of political federalism”, in Public Finances: Needs, sources and utilization, National Bureau of Economic Research. New York and Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 97-122.

Musgrave, R. (1998), “Approaches to a fiscal theory of political federalism”, in Oates W.E. (ed), The economics of fiscal federalism and local finance. Chelterham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, pp. 187-212.

Οates, W.E. (1998), “Introduction”, in Oates W.E. (ed), The economics of fiscal federalism and local finance. Chelterham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Ober, J. (2008), Democracy and Knowledge. Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Pauly, M.V. (1973), Income reduction as a local public good, Journal of Public Economics, 2(1), 35-58.

Pauly, M.V. (1998), “Income reduction as a local public good”, in Oates W.E. (ed), The economics of fiscal federalism and local finance. Chelterham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, pp. 364-388.

Rzepka, J. (1999), The Aetolian elite warriors and fifth century roots of the Hellenistic Confederacy, AKME. Studia Historica, 4/2009, 5-34.

Scholten, J.B. (2000), The Politics of Plunder: Aitolians and their Koinon in the Early Hellenistic Era, 279-217 B.C. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Weingast, B. (1995), The economic role of political institutions: Market preserving federalism and economic development. Journal of Law, Economics and Organisation, 11. 1-29.