Evolving Federalism & Region-based Decentralization

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Learning about Federalism using Australia’s example         Forum of Federations: Videos for Learning about Federalism         How will the Government pay for its COVID-19 Expenses?         Constitutional Reform First before claiming Sabah!         Why Do So Many Filipinos Misunderstand System Change?         Lee Kuan Yew’s Speech at the Philippine Business Conference         Federalism & Decentralization: Evaluating Africa’s Track Record         Juan Linz: The Perils of Presidentialism         Frequently Asked Questions (Tagalog)         The Parliamentary System can fix Philippine Politics         Presidential or Parliamentary – Does it Make a Difference?         Federalism in Africa: The Case of Ethiopia – Challenges & Prospects         Rediscovering the Advantages of Federalism         KITT vs KARR: Systems & Algorithms Matter         Why are the Monsods so anti-Constitutional Reform?         How does Federalism work?         What if we were Parliamentary back in 2009?         Marina Bay Sands is One Big Foreign Direct Investment         A Head of State and A Head of Government         No Parliamentary System, No LKY & No Mahathir         Rizal the Federalist; Bonifacio the Unitarian         Foreigner: Pinoy Inability to Improve is due to Escapism         The Philippines is run like a Mafia Network         Tacloban Tragedy: A Painful Wake-up Call         Ang Hagupit ng Bagyong Yolanda         The Coming Fall of the “Noynoy Project”         The Parable of the Mountain Bike         US Government Shutdown: The Presidential System Sucks         Infographic: Solutions to the Root Causes of the Pork Barrel         Nápoles & Pork Barrel: It’s the Lousy System         1987 Constitution Kicks FedEx Out         Benign0 is just as clueless as “Benigno”         Polls aren’t just for Metro Manila: Why Federalism?         Nancy Binay – Don’t hate the player, hate the game!         Should the Philippines Turn Parliamentary?         Chicken or the Egg: Culture Change or System Change?         Lynching Laurel         Constitutional Change Now         A Tale of Two Countries         Making the economic comeback w/ higher private FDI         Tables and Ladders (Exposing Esposo, Part 2)         It’s all about Competition         It’s the Economy, Student!         ‘Sensya na po, Sir…’         Let’s Talk Basketball – by Figo Cantos         Sen. Enrile Solidly Supports Parliamentarism         Crucifying Cruz         The CoRRECT™ Three Point Agenda         The Parliamentary System: Would it produce better leaders?         Problems of Presidentialism & the US Exception         A Good Constitution Must Reduce the Impact of a Bad Leader         Sen. Claro M. Recto on the Presidential System         Philippine Progress: Shift in Sports, Shift in System         Exposing Esposo         2 Filipinos: A Football Legend & A Spanish Prime Minister         The Parliamentary System Fits the Philippines         Sen. Pangilinan & the Parliamentary System        

Empower the regions, respect diversity, decongest Imperial Manila. 

The 1987 Constitution defines the Philippines as being a unitary state, centralized around the capital of Manila. The result has been that most economic opportunities and opportunities for quality education and self-development are concentrated around the National Capital Region, and leaving the countryside, the provinces, and other cities relatively underdeveloped.

Evolving Federalism by Regions

As such, ordinary Filipinos seeking higher education or better job opportunities are forced to flock to Metropolitan Manila in order to try their luck, unfortunately resulting in the massive population congestion, higher pollution levels, sub-standard living conditions, extreme traffic jams, and high crime rate of Metro Manila. It has also caused the Philippine provinces to have to remit most of their taxes to the capital, and after aggregating the entire amount at the national level, smaller amounts are redistributed back to the local entities, giving them little incentive to develop their own local economies as whatever they produce does not exactly go straight to their own development and instead is mostly remitted back to the capital.

By allowing for evolving region-based decentralization, the different regions in the Philippines will be better empowered to take control of their own economic decision-making, giving them greater incentives to develop their economies, attract their own investors, and create local opportunities that would allow their own people to prosper while staying in their own regions without needing to migrate to the National Capital Region. Empowering the regions this way also respects the cultures, traditions, and languages of the different ethnicities found in the different regions as this devolution of powers will allow the different regions to protect their own local cultural and/or linguistic heritage.

Watch this video that talks about the concept. 

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Academic Papers & PDFs on Federalism:

Full Playlist of Federalism Lecture:

Individual Modules of the Federalism Lecture:

Forum of Federations Basic Lectures:

Ashutosh Varshney Lectures on Ethnic Conflict: