The deliverables of the project included a combination of publications, presentations at conferences and the organization of a seminar. I have produced three articles and a book chapter. The first two articles aimed at taking stock of the existing institutions and processes of IGR. The article on horizontal intergovernmental forums reveals how subnational units attempt to overcome the limits of autonomy by creating a common front against the national government. This article is published in Perspectives on Federalism, an open access journal. The article on legislative IGR, published in Regional and Federal studies, discusses, in comparative manner, the failure of second chambers to serve as a site of legislative intergovernmental relations. The third article, published in World Comparative Law/VLR, explores how identity politics shapes the dynamics of IGR, where conflicts between different levels of government dominates IGR not because of divergence over specific policy objectives but because of underlying communal tensions. The book chapter analyses, in comparative manner, how institutions and processes of IGR have been used to help manage communal tensions.
An edited book on intergovernmental relation in divided societies is one of the other major deliverables of this project. In addition to an introduction and a comparative conclusion, the book includes eight country chapters, including Switzerland, Canada, India, Italy, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, and Ethiopia. These countries are selected because each of them exhibit, to a varying degree, traits of a divided society and have established territorial autonomy to deal with the challenges of their respective divided societies. By way of addressing each of the three specific objectives mentioned above, each of the eight country case studies assembled in the book examines how the distinctive identity of particular subnational units shapes the dynamics of IGR, investigates whether identity politics has affected the type of institutions and instruments of IGR employed in the country and, finally, examine if and how institutions and instruments of IGR have contributed to the peaceful management of divided societies.
I have disseminated the results of my research in scientific publications. As mentioned above, I have published my articles in leading international journals. I have also presented my work at a number of international conferences, including at the the 2019 edition of International Federalism Days, which took place in Munich (Germany), in November 2019, where 80 experts from twenty European, African and Asian countries discussed federalism and IGR. I was one of the two international experts that chaired the panel on ‘Intergovernmental relations: Institutions and processes’. I have published my work in reputable scientific blogs, including the Conversation, IACL-IADC Blog and verfassungsblog. I have given radio interviews on intergovernmental relations and federalism to BBC, DW and ShegerFM. I gave lecture to participants at highly regarded summer schools organized by European and Canadian institutes, comparative constitutional law students at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University(USA) and to constitutional law students of a number of universities in Italy, including University of Trento, University of Verona and University of Naples L'Orientale.
