Introduction: The Renewal of Federal Studies and Comparative Federalism

In addition to the “plurality of approaches” to federal studies assembled in this volume, the “pluralist exploration” in the title of the book shall have another, complementary meaning. It entails a commitment of many authors participating to this collective work to normalizing the connection between federal studies and scholarship on pluralism and diversity management. Indeed, most of the following chapters tackle in some way the potential as well as the limits of federal-like arrangements and political ideas associated with federalism to the fair management of diversity: minority nations, societal and regional communities, linguistic groups, non-dominant and ethnocultural groups. This is a clear analytical plus-value this volume offers that contributes to differentiate it from existing scholarly work on comparative federalism.