Federalismo e paradiplomacia: o caso dos länder na Alemanha

Abstract

The historical context of 1990 with globalization and interdependence between countries opened the space for the increasingly active performance of a plurality of actors in the face of the deterioration of centralized state prerogatives. Paradiplomacy, the performance of sub-state actors on the international scenario, emerges in this juncture in order to promote domestic development and resolve specific internal demands. The phenomenon has become an integral part of the governments' agenda. Thus, the objective of this research is to study the role of subnational actors, specifically the role of the Länder, Federal States of Germany, based on a bibliographic, documentary and constitutional analysis of the country after its reunification. The essay will introduce the historical context of the emergence and the conceptualization of the paradiplomatic phenomenon through a bibliographic review, as the issues related to Germany's federalism and foreign policy, which enabled a strong position of the Länder, fixed by the 1949 fundamental law, and accentuated after reunification. Therefore, the aim is to study the German Länder by analyzing the issues that boosted the activity, the formal instruments created to deal with this international initiative and the issues related to the European Union. Furthermore, it is intended to do an empirical study on the international extroversion of Baviera and Baden-Wurttemberg, to demonstrate an application of paradiplomacy in practice.