The shift to a federal form of government continues to gain support in countries like the Philippines where "democracy" is supposed to be the order of things. The general view is that federalism upholds the democratic principles of equal representation, autonomy and distribution of power, among others. This article, however, cautions about taking federalism simply on its theoretical merits. In practice, attempts at federalism have also led to undesirable results such as over bureaucratization, repetition of gridlock at the subnational level, overlapping jurisdictions, adversarial central-local relationships, potential for disunity, and even secessionist tendencies of subnational constituencies. The experiences of federal countries like the United States, Canada and India are presented to serve as a guide for federalism efforts in the Philippines. The author concludes that the current leadership in the Philippines should concentrate more intensively on resolving the fundamental issues of poverty, inequality and corruption as a precondition for instituting more formal radical changes in the political system.
