Taking stock during times of change

The preceding chapters give a snapshot of what we have labeled “the new wave of federalism studies”. In order to bring coherence into a volume that addresses various facets of federalism research, we introduced four major benchmarks in the introductory chapter, based on institutions, democracy, cleavages and public policy. First, we will briefly summarize the distinctive features of the new wave of federalism as they emerge from this volume and identify connections between the contributions and the benchmarks that have guided this volume. Next, we will move up the ladder of abstraction and search for patterns of commonality between all or at least most contributions to this volume, irrespective of the theme which they address. Finally, we predict that developments within the discipline and in the real world are likely to consolidate the supply of federalism and of federalism studies.