Federalism
Ch-2
Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided
between a central authority and various constituent units of the
country.
Usually, a federation has two levels of government.
One is the government for the entire country that is usually
responsible for a few subjects of common national interest.
The others are governments at the level of provinces or states that
look after much of the day- to-day administering of their state.
Both these levels of governments enjoy their power independent of
the other.
Let us look at some of the key features of federalism :
There are two or more levels (or tiers) of government.
Different tiers of government govern the same citizens, but each
tier has its own jurisdiction in specific matters of legislation, taxation
and administration.
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.
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.
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.
Sources of revenue for each level of government are clearly
specified to ensureits financial autonomy.
The federal system thus has dual objectives: to safeguard and
promote unity of the country, while at the same time accommodate
regional diversity.
Two types of federations
The exact balance of power between the central and the state
government varies from one federation to another.
Coming Together Federation:
The first route involves independent States coming together on their
own to form a bigger unit, so that by pooling sovereignty and
retaining identity, they can increase their security.
This type of ‘coming together’ federations include the USA,
Switzerland and Australia.
Holding Together Federation:
The second route is where a large country decides to divide its
power between the constituent States and the national government.
India, Spain and Belgium are examples of this kind of ‘holding
together’ federations.
Jurisdiction: The area over which someone has legal authority. The area may be defined
in terms of geographical boundaries or in terms of certain kinds of subjects.
What makes India a federal country?
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.
Thus, it contains three lists:
(1) Union List includes subjects of national importance, such as
defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications
and currency. The Union Government alone can make laws relating
to the subjects mentioned in the Union List.
(2) State List contains 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.
(3) Concurrent List includes 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.
(4) Residuary List includes 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.
All States in the Indian Union do not have identical powers. Some
States enjoy a special status. States such as Assam, Nagaland,
Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram enjoy special powers under certain
provisions of the Constitution of India (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.
Areas, like Chandigarh, or Lakshadweep or the capital city of Delhi,
are called Union Territories. These territories do not have the
powers of a State. The Central Government has special powers in
running these areas.
It is not easy to make changes to this power sharing arrangement.
The Parliament cannot on its own change this arrangement. Any
change to it has to be first passed by both the Houses of Parliament
with at least two-thirds majority. Then it has to be ratified by the
legislatures of at least half of the total States.
In case of any dispute about the division of powers, the High Courts
and the Supreme Court make a decision.
How is federalism practised?
Linguistic states
The creation of linguistic States was the first and a major test for
democratic politics in our country.
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.
Language Policy
The Indian constitution does not give status of national language to
any one language.
About 40% of Indians mother tongue is Hindi . So, Hindi is the
official language of India .
Besides Hindi other 21 languages are recognised as scheduled
languages by constitution.
A candidate in an examination for a central government position
may opt to take examination in any of these languages .
States have their own official language in which the government
work takes place in the respective state.
English acts as a medium of communication between central and
state or inter -state government work.
Centre State Relations
For a long time, the same political party ruled in centre and many of
the States. This did not allow state governments to exercise their
rights as autonomous federal units .
It the party ruling in state and centre was different then central
Government often misused the constitution to dismiss state
Government that was controlled by their rival party.
All this changed significantly after 1990 .The time saw the rise of
regional political parties. This was the beginning of the era of
coalition government at centre. No single parties had to enter in an
alliance to form government at the centre.
This led to a new culture of power sharing and respect for the
autonomy of State government.
This new trend made difficult for central Government to dismiss
state Government in arbitrary manner.
Decentralisation in India
When power is taken away from Central and State governments and
given to local government, it is called decentralisation.
The local government includes Panchayats in villages and
municipalities in Urban Areas .
Earlier elections were not hold regularly and local governments
were not given any power by state government. A major step
towards decentralisation was taken in 1992:
Amendments Of 1992:
Now it is constitutionally mandatory to hold regular elections to local
government bodies.
Seats are reserved in the elected bodies and the executive heads of
these institutions for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and
Other Backward Classes.
At least one-third of all positions are reserved for women.
An independent institution called the State Election Commission has
been created in each State to conduct panchayat and municipal
elections.
The State governments are required to share some powers and
revenue with local government bodies. The nature of sharing varies
from State to State.
Each village, or a group of villages in some States, has a gram
panchayat. This is a council consisting of several ward members,
often called panch, and a president or sarpanch. They are directly
elected by all the adult population living in that ward or village. It is
the decision-making body for the entire village. The panchayat
works under the overall supervision of the gram sabha.
A few gram panchayats are grouped together to form what is
usually called a panchayat samiti or block or mandal.
All the panchayat samitis or mandals in a district together constitute
the zilla (district) parishad. Most members of the zilla parishad are
elected. Members of the Lok Sabha and MLAs of that district and
some other officials of other district level bodies are also its
members.
Big cities are constituted into municipal corporations. Both
municipalities and municipal corporations are controlled by elected
bodies consisting of people’s representatives.
