POLITICAL SCIENCE
LESSON – 2
FEDERALISM
Let us get back to the contrast between Belgium and
Sri Lanka:
1. One of the key changes made in the Constitution of
Belgium was to reduce
the power of the Central Government and to give these
powers to the
regional governments.
2. Regional governments existed in Belgium even earlier.
They had their roles
and powers. But all these powers were given to the
regional governments and
could be withdrawn by the Central Government.
3. The change that took place in 1993 was that the regional
governments were
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.
1. One is the government for the entire country that is
usually
responsible for a few subjects of common national
interest.
2. The others are governments at the level of
HOW IS A FEDERAL SYSTEM DIFFERENT FROM
A UNITARY SYSTEM ?
Under the unitary system, either there is only
one level of government or the sub-units are
subordinate to the central government. The
central government can pass on orders to the
provincial or the local government.
But in a federal system, the central
government cannot order the state
government to do something. State
government has powers of its own for which
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 (The area over which
someone has
legal authority to perform) 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
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 has dual objectives:
HOW ARE FEDERATIONS FORMED ?
There are two kinds of routes through which federations have
been formed.
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. For example: USA, Switzerland and
Australia. All the constituent States usually have equal
power and are strong in relation to the federal
government.
The second route is holding together where a large country
decides to divide its power between the constituent States
and the national government. For example: India, Spain
and Belgium. The central government tends to be more
What makes India a federal country ?
1. The presence of three tiers of government - The Central,
the Regional [State]
and the Local - self governments.
2. The Constitutionally guaranteed separation of powers
through the LIST
SYSTEM - UNION List, STATE List, CONCURRENT List and
RESIDUARY powers.
UNION LIST: includes subjects of national importance, such
as defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking,
communications and currency. They are included in this list
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.
CONCURRENT LIST: includes subjects of common interest
to both the Union Government as well as the State
Governments, suchas 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.
RESIDUARY POWERS: Subjects like computer software that
3. Most federations that are formed by ‘holding together’ do not give
equal power to its
constituent units. Thus, 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. Indians
who are not permanent residents of this State cannot buy land or
house here. Similar
5. 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.
6. The judiciary plays an important role in overseeing
the
implementation of constitutional provisions and
How is federalism
practiced ?
LINGUISTIC STATES
LANGUAGE POLICY
CENTRE – STATE RELATIONS
LINGUISTIC STATES
The creation of linguistic States was the first and a major test
for democratic politics in our country. It was done to ensure
that people who spoke the same language lived in the same
State. Some States were created not on the basis of language
but to recognize differences based on culture, ethnicity or
geography. For example: Nagaland, Uttarakhand and
Jharkhand.
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.
LANGUAGE POLICY
Our Constitution did not give the status of national language
to any one language. Hindi was identified as the official
language. Hindi is the mother tongue of only 40% of Indians.
So, there were many safeguards to protect other languages.
Besides Hindi, there are 21 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.
The use of English for official purposes was to stop in 1965.
However, many non-Hindi speaking States demanded that the
use of English to be continued. 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
CENTRE – STATE RELATIONS
Restructuring the Centre-State relations is one more way in which
federalism has been strengthened in practice. 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.
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
DECENTRALISATION IN INDIA
WHAT IS DECENTRALISATION ?
When power is taken away
from Central and State
governments and given to
local government, it is called
decentralization.
WHY DO WE NEED DECENTRALISATION ?
The basic idea behind decentralisation is that there are a
large number of problems and issues which are best settled
at the local level. People have better knowledge of
problems in their localities.
They also have better ideas on where to spend money and
how to manage things more efficiently.
Besides, at the local level it is possible for the people to
directly participate in decision making. This helps to
inculcate a habit of democratic participation.
Local government is the best way to realize one important
principle of democracy, namely local self-government.
A major step towards decentralisation was taken in
1992. The Constitution was amended to make the third-
tier of democracy more powerful and effective.
1. Now it is constitutionally mandatory to hold regular
elections to local
government bodies.
2. Seats are reserved in the elected bodies and the executive
heads of these
institutions for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and
Other Backward
Classes.
3. At least one-third of all positions are reserved for women.
4. An independent institution called the State Election
Commission has been
Rural local government is popularly known by the name
Panchayati Raj.
1. 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. President / Sarpanch is the head of
gram panchayat.
2. They are directly elected by all the adult population living
in that ward or
village. Gram panchayat is the decision-making body for
Gram Panchayat – It is the decision-making body for
the entire village.
The local government structure goes right up to the
district level.
1. A few gram panchayats are grouped together to form what
is usually called a
panchayat samiti or block or mandal. Chairperson, the
head of Mandal samiti.
2. The members of the block samiti are elected by the people
directly in that
area. All the panchayat samitis or mandals in a district
together constitute
Local government bodies exist for urban areas
as well.
1. Municipalities are set up in towns.
2. Big cities are constituted into municipal
corporations.
3. Both municipalities and municipal corporations are
controlled by
elected bodies consisting of people’s
representatives.
This new system of local government is the largest
experiment in democracy.
There are now about 36 lakh elected representatives
in the panchayats and municipalities etc., all over
India.
Constitutional status for local government has helped
to deepen democracy in our country. It has also
increased women’s representation and voice in our
democracy.
At the same time, there are many difficulties.
While elections are held regularly and enthusiastically,
gram sabhas are not held regularly.
Most state governments have not transferred
THANK YOU…
