FEDERALISM
Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a
central authority and various constituent units of the country.
➢ Difference between Unitary and Federal form of government
UNITARY SYSTEM FEDERAL SYSTEM
i) Only one level of government or the i) Two or more levels of government
sub-units are subordinate to the
central government
ii) The National government has all ii) State government has its own
the powers. powers for which it is not answerable
to the central government
iii) Central can pass orders to local iii) Central can’t order the state
government government to do something.
iv) Governments at any level aren’t iv) Government at any level are
answerable to the people. answerable to the people
Example → Sri Lanka, China, etc. Example → India, U.S.A , etc.
➢ Key Features of Federalism
Let us look at some of the key features of federalism :
1. There are two or more levels (or tiers) of government.
2. Different tiers of government govern the same citizens, but each tier
has its own jurisdiction in specific matters of legislation, taxation
and administration.
3. The jurisdictions of the respective levels or tiers of government are
specified in the constitution. So the existence and authority of each
tier of government is constitutionally guaranteed.
4. The fundamental provisions of the constitution cannot be
unilaterally changed by one level of government. Such changes
require the consent of both the levels of government.
5. Courts have the power to interpret the constitution and the powers
of different levels of government. The highest court acts as an
umpire if disputes arise between different levels of government in
the exercise of their respective powers.
6. Sources of revenue for each level of government are clearly
specified to ensure its financial autonomy.
7. The federal system thus has dual objectives:
➔ to safeguard and promote unity of the country,
➔ To accommodate regional diversity.
Therefore, two aspects are crucial for the institutions and practice of
federalism.
➢ An Ideal Federal System
➢ Types of Federations
COMING TOGETHER HOLDING TOGETHER
i) Independent states coming i) Large country decides to divide
together on their own to form a its power between the constituent
bigger unit. States and the national
government
ii) All the constituent States ii) The Central Government tends
usually have equal power and are to be more powerful vis-à-vis the
strong vis-à-vis the federal States.
government
iii) The main aim ➡ pool their iii) In this type of Federation, there
sovereignty and maintain their is an absence of pooling
separate identity to increase their sovereignty and maintaining
security. identity.
Example ➡ U.S.A, Australia, etc. Example ➡ India, Belgium, etc.
➢ What makes India a federal country?
I. India had emerged as an independent nation after a painful and
bloody partition.
II. Soon after Independence, several princely states became a part of
the country.
III. The Constitution declared India as a Union of States.
IV. Although it did not use the word federation, the Indian Union is
based on the principles of federalism.
➢ Vertical division of power
● The Constitution originally provided for a two-tier system of
government, the Union Government or what we call the Central
Government, representing the Union of India and the State
governments.
● Later, a third tier of federalism was added in the form of Panchayats
and Municipalities. As in any federation, these different tiers enjoy
separate jurisdiction.
● The Constitution clearly provided a three-fold distribution of
legislative powers between the Union Government and the State
Governments.
➢ Three lists
I. Union List(97 subjects) ➡ subjects of national importance, such as
defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications
and currency.
● They are included in this list because we need a uniform policy
on these matters throughout the country.
● The Union Government alone can make laws relating to the
subjects mentioned in the Union List.
II. State List (66 subjects) ➡ subjects of State and local importance,
such as police, trade, commerce, agriculture and irrigation.
● The State Governments alone can make laws relating to the
subjects mentioned in the State List.
● Differs from state to state
III. Concurrent List (47 subjects) ➡ subjects of common interest to
both the Union Government as well as the State Governments, such
as education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption and
succession.
● Both the Union as well as the State Governments can make
laws on the subjects mentioned in this list.
● If their laws conflict with each other, the law made by the
Union Government will prevail.
IV. What about subjects that do not fall in any of the three lists? Or
subjects like computer software that came up after the constitution
was made? According to our constitution, the Union Government
has the power to legislate on these ‘residuary’ subjects.
● Not all states in India have identical powers.
● States such as Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram enjoy
Special Powers under certain Indian provisions of the Indian constitution
Article 371 due to their Peculiar social and historical circumstances.
● These special powers are especially enjoyed in relation to the protection
of land rights of indigenous peoples, their culture and also preferential
employment in government services. .
● Indians who are not permanent residents of this State cannot buy land or
house here.
● Similar special provisions exist for some other States of India as well.
● There are some units of the Indian Union which enjoy very little power.
● These are too small to become an independent state but which could not
be merged with any of the existing States.
● Example: Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, the capital city of Delhi, are called
Union Territories.
● These territories do not have the power of a state.
● The central government has the power of a state and has special powers
in these areas.
➢ How to make changes in this power sharing?
There are two steps to make changes:
(i) any change to it has to be first passed by both the houses of the
parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) with atheist 2/3rd majority.
(ii)Then it has to be ratified by the legislature of atleast half of the total
states.
➢ Role of Judiciary
1. The judiciary plays an important role in overseeing the implementation
of constitutional provisions and procedures.
2. In case of any dispute about the division of powers, the High Courts and
the Supreme Court make a decision.
➢ Where does the government get money to do welfare in states?
● The Union and state governments have the power to raise resources
by levying taxes.
● This keeps them to carry out responsibilities assigned to each of
them.
➢ Success of Federalism
● Constitutional provisions are necessary for the success of
federalism but these are not sufficient.
● If the federal experiment has succeeded in India, it is not merely
because of the clearly laid out constitutional provisions.
● The real success of federalism in India can be attributed to the
nature of democratic politics in our country.
● This ensured the
➔ spirit of federalism,
➔ respect for diversity and
➔ desire for living together
became shared ideals in our country.
➢ Linguistic states
● Creation of linguistic States was the first and a major test for
democratic politics in
our country.
● Since 1947 till 2019
many old States have
vanished and many
new States have been
created.
● Areas, boundaries and
names of the States
have been changed. In
1947, the boundaries of
several old States of
India were changed in
order to create new
States.
● This was done to ensure
that people who spoke
the same language
lived in the same State.
● Some States like Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were
created not on the basis of language but to recognise differences
based on culture, ethnicity or geography.
● When the demand for the formation of States on the basis of
language was raised, some national leaders feared that it would
lead to the disintegration of the country.
● The Central Government resisted linguistic States for some time. But
the experience has shown that the formation of linguistic States has
actually made the country more united.
● It has also made administration easier.
➢ Language policy
● Second test for Indian federation is the language policy. Our
Constitution did not give the status of national language to any one
language.
● Hindi was identified as the official language. But Hindi is the mother
tongue of only about 40 per cent of Indians. Therefore, there were
many safeguards to protect other languages.
● Besides Hindi, there are 22 other languages recognised as
Scheduled Languages by the Constitution.
● A candidate in an examination conducted for the Central
Government positions may opt to take the examination in any of
these languages.
● States too have their own official languages.
● Much of the government work takes place in the official language of
the concerned State.
● Unlike Sri Lanka, the leaders of our country adopted a very cautious
attitude in spreading the use of Hindi.
● According to the Constitution, the use of English for official purposes
was to stop in 1965. However, many non-Hindi speaking States
demanded that the use of English continue.
● In Tamil Nadu, this movement took a violent form. The Central
Government responded by agreeing to continue the use of English
along with Hindi for official purposes.
● Many critics think that this solution favoured the English-speaking
elite.
● Promotion of Hindi continues to be the official policy of the
Government of India. Promotion does not mean that the Central
Government can impose Hindi on States where people speak a
different language.
● The flexibility shown by Indian political leaders helped our country
avoid the kind of situation that Sri Lanka finds itself in.
➢ Centre-State relations
● Restructuring the Centre-State relations is one more way in which
federalism has been strengthened in practice.
{How the constitutional arrangements for sharing power work in reality depends to a large extent on how the ruling parties and
leaders follow these arrangements.}
● For a long time, the same party ruled both at the Centre and in most
of the States. This meant that the State Governments did not
exercise their rights as autonomous federal units.
● As and when the ruling party at the State level was different, the
parties that ruled at the Centre tried to undermine the power of the
States.
● In those days, the Central Government would often misuse the
Constitution to dismiss the State Governments that were controlled
by rival parties. This undermined the spirit of federalism.
➢ Beginning of the era of coalition governments
● All this changed significantly after 1990. This period saw the rise of
regional political parties in many States of the country.
● This was also the beginning of the era of coalition governments at
the Centre.
● Since no single party got a clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the
major national parties had to enter into an alliance with many
parties including several regional parties to form a government at
the Centre.
● This led to a new culture of power sharing and respect for the
autonomy of State Governments. This trend was supported by a
major judgement of the Supreme Court that made it difficult for the
Central Government to dismiss state governments in an arbitrary
manner.
Thus, federal power sharing is more effective today than it was in the early
years after the Constitution came into force.
➢ Decentralisation in India
● A vast country like India cannot be run only through these two-tiers.
● States in India are as large as independent countries of Europe. In
terms of population, Uttar Pradesh is bigger than Russia,
Maharashtra is about as big as Germany. Many of these States are
internally very diverse.
● There is thus a need for power sharing within these States. Federal
power sharing in India needs another tier of government, below that
of the State governments. This is the rationale for decentralisation
of power. Thus, resulted a thirdtier of government, called local
government.
●
