FEDERALISM AND GLOBALIZATION

Abstract

This article analyzes the impacts of economic globalization on the federal model, with an emphasis on the Brazilian case. It begins with the classical conception of federalism, based on the equitable division of powers between the Union and the States, as structured in the 1787 United States Constitution and influenced by Locke's ideas. However, historical evolution—especially the crises of the Industrial Age, the New Deal, and the welfare state—led to the centralization of political and economic decisions in the Union, giving rise to so-called asymmetrical federalism. From the second half of the 20th century onwards, economic globalization imposed new challenges. Capital became volatile and transnational, overcoming national borders and demanding new forms of regulation. José Eduardo Faria and Gunther Teubner are used as a basis to analyze how law, in the face of this reality, becomes procedural, standardizing, and indirect, with characteristics of soft law and regulation by standards and protocols. Thus, a fragmented and global legal pluralism emerges. In the Brazilian context, this scenario deepens regional inequalities and weakens subnational autonomy, already compromised by a centripetal federalism. Globalization imposes decisions made in supranational or market-based instances, without the effective participation of federative entities. The article concludes that it is necessary to rethink federalism as a dynamic system, capable of engaging with new global normative centers, preserving local autonomy, and guaranteeing the effectiveness of fundamental rights, even amidst a context of overlapping legal orders.