After class on Tuesday I attended the Public Lecture “Unitarian Federalism and Regional Diversity: The German Experience,” delivered by the Ambasadorul Republicii Federale Germania, Excelenţa Sa, Dl Berthold Johannes, the German Ambassador, with my office-mate, a professor from Germany. The well-attended lecture took place in Aula Germany, of course.
The Ambassador is a former college professor (a comparativist who taught British Politics at the Free University of Berlin).
His lecture was about federalism in Germany
It was great to see several of my students there. We just had a long discussion about federalism in my US Constitutional Law class earlier that morning. (Right now we are covering Separation of Powers, but, I had explained that the US Constitution limits powers "vertically" (federalism) and "horizontally" (separation of powers) and wanted to make sure students understood federalism in the US before moving on (though we will have a week devoted to federalism later in the semester)
I found myself taking a "states rights" position, waving the 10th Amendment almost as feverishly as Bob Dole, when one of my students suggested it would be easier if we abolished all of the state governments and just had the national government in Washington.
In any case, several of the themes that I had discussed in class -- how the states were the "laboratories of democracy" able to govern based on local traditions, customs, needs -- came up in the German Ambassador's lecture.
I very much appreciated the lecture and the opportunity to learn more about Germany's history and politics from the Ambassador.
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