Not just democracy. Federalism makes possible a devolvement of power to
states or provinces from a federal, central government. It's like the
power
that states have in the US or provinces have in Canada. It's a check on
the
central govenment's power.
China keeps threatening to take Taiwan by force if it secedes. But the
reason Taiwan wants to secede is that China doesn't treat it with its due
respect; the same is true of all the other provinces of China. By giving
local governments latitude to handle local issues, tailor-made solutions
to
local type problems can be applied.
The big worry, as in Iraq, is that federalism will lead to the break up of
a
nation. Yet the truth is that it actually makes a nation stronger and more
cohesive, since one-size-fits-all solutions aren't applied in a
heavy-handed
way to everything. And it is especially effective when a democracy allows
power to be shared and spread constitutionally.
Taiwan should implicitly use its threat to secede as a means of ****ging
China to allow federalized democracy for all of its provinces, with the
implication that Taiwan will willingly rejoin China if all provinces are
given equal, democratic and power-devolved respect from Beijing.
