Excerpts
Definition
US Legal (reference below) describes asymmetrical federalism refers to a federal system of government in which power is unevenly divided between states such that some states have greater responsibilities or more autonomy than others.
It notes that an asymmetric federation must have a federal constitution and all states in federation have the same formal status as state.
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“The Constitution of Canada is broadly symmetric but contains certain specific sections that apply only to certain provinces. In practice, a degree of asymmetry is created as a result of the evolution of the Canadian federal experiment, individual federal-provincial agreements, and judicial interpretation. Asymmetrical federalism has been much discussed as a formula for stability in Canada, meeting the aspirations of French-speaking Quebec for control over its cultural and social life without removing it from the national federation, where it coexists with nine largely English-speaking provinces."
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