Welcome to our massive open, online course on federalism and decentralization. My name is Jan Erk. I teach political science at Leiden University in the Netherlands. I'm also the co-editor of the journal regional and federal studies and some of the readings are going to be available for you to follow in this course. This is an international refereed journal, which acts as a venue for academic research dealing with various aspects of federalism and decentralization. Now, our course is a general introduction to these two concepts, that is, federalism and decentralization. The formal title is Federalism and Decentralization and the reason why we have this is precisely because of the hope the two concepts presented to many countries around the world, particularly in the global south. Federalism and decentralization are normally studied within the context of the federations of the western world. But in this course, we will combine that rich scholarly tradition with a new, substantive context. Since the 1990s almost all countries to the south of the Sahara have become either federal or decentralized. It is for this reason that the second part of the formal title of our course is evaluating Africa's track record. Our university town Leiden has a special place in this rich scholarly tradition on federalism. In the early 1600s, Leiden welcomed a small group of so called dissenters from England, fleeing religious and political persecution. During their stay in Leiden, the English dissenters adopted a covenant to manage their internal affairs. The same covenant also regulated their external relationship to various lay authorities in the Netherlands. Directly to the city of Leiden as well as the province of Holland, and indirectly to the United Provinces of the Netherlands. These dissenters were to become the pilgrim fathers of America. And what they established here in Leiden, the mix of self-rule and shared rule in a system of multiple orders of authority, was to be the blueprint for the American colonies. Their experience eventually culminated in the Federalist Papers which led to the American constitution. That is what you see on our course logo. We'll be looking at this mix of self-rule and shared rule in a different geographical context. Africa. And, that explains why our course logo has the Federalist papers framed within the African continent. Our course is composed of six modules examining federalism and decentralization through different angles. Module 1 is titled The Three Promises of Federalism, and it's a general introduction to the Federalism and Decentralization literatures as well as the three promises these twin concepts in terms or democracy, good governance, and diversity. Module 2 looks at the core ideas in Federalism and Decentralization, in particular the combination of self rule and shared rule, the distribution of political power between orders of government, and the presence of multiple identities that allows individuals to identify with both the central and the regional levels of government. In model 3, we examine the building blocks that make Federalism and Decentralization work. We start with the constitution and the division of powers between the branches of Government and the orders of Government included therein. The role of courts and a National Bill of Rights and the regional representation in central institutions such as executives, parliaments, bureaucracy's and security services, and the underlying sociodemographic factors. In models 4 and 5 we start our African case studies. We first look at federalism in South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, we then turn our attention to decentralization. Here in comparative terms, we look at things like regional economic inequality, limits that administrative capacity as well as close links between tradition and institutional design in decentralization. In the concluding model that is 6, we wrap things up by looking at the role of international organizations in promoting federalism and decentralization in Africa. The final section also looks at the interaction between the imported institutional blueprints and the local home grown traditions and seeks to distill broader lessons. Each module will have three regular video lectures, a general overview, as well as a multi-choice quiz. Those following the advanced track are also expected to submit an additional country review at the end of the course. By the end of the course, you will have acquired a general knowledge of federalism and decentralization. And upon completion, you'll also acquire the ability to unpack and understand a variety of potential consequence of federalism and decentralization reforms in the developing world, particularly in Africa. Furthermore, you'll acquire an in-depth knowledge about the politics of federalism and decentralization in a number of African countries specifically. While I will be the person you will be seeing on the screen for most of the time, there is in fact a behind-the-scenes team that has made the course possible. Miranda Verboon and Gerrit Krol are the two project assistants who have helped build the course and will ensure its smooth function. Miranda and Gerrit are both graduate students and in addition to their role in the preparation of the course, they will also be supervising the online interaction with the course participants. I thank them, and I welcome you to Federalism and Decentralization Evaluating Africa's track record.
