RC28 facilitates the pursuit of political science research and scholarship on federalism and multilevel governance from a global comparative perspective.

This includes the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical analysis of the origins, operations, and consequences of federal and quasi-federal structures of government, from both a positive and a normative approach.

Topics of particular interest to RC28 include constitutional and institutional arrangements; political behaviour, policy-making, and intergovernmental and fiscal relations; and territorially-based cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity.

RC28’s scope spans federal and confederal systems as well as unitary states where a regional tier of government plays an important role.

We collaborate closely with other IPSA research committees, in particular RC01 – Concepts and Methods; RC05 – Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics; RC14 – Politics and Ethnicity; RC17 – Comparative Public Opinion; RC23 – Elections, Citizens, and Parties; RC30 – Comparative Public Policy; RC32 – Public Policy and Administration; and RC50 – The Politics of Language.

We also collaborate with other prominent networks of political scientists working on federalism, in particular APSA’s Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations organised group and ECPR’s standing group on Federalism and Regionalism.

Our aims, membership, structure, and processes are governed by a set of bylaws.