(Dis)Empowerment and Self-Rule: Fiscal Federalism and Minority Nations in Canada

Federalism is often advanced as a means to enable the coexistence of diverse peoples beneath a common umbrella of a shared state apparatus. Scholars have long considered how the division of powers and the allocation of jurisdictional capacities among multiple orders of government may empower and foster the autonomy of internal national minority communities. Until recently, however, the ways in which the fiscal arrangements of a federation may affect the coexistence of diverse peoples have remained largely unexplored. Using the case of Canada, this chapter identifies the concrete features of fiscal federalism that may contribute to—or detract from—the empowerment of internal minority national communities. Drawing from the Canadian experience, three features of a fiscal architecture are directly related to the realization of minority national empowerment: (1) representation and participation in the management of fiscal arrangements; (2) the independence of the revenue base that is available to internal communities; and (3) the conditions and time horizons that are associated with the arrangements.