FEDERALISM

1. What is the main difference between a federal form of government and unitary?
Government ? Explain with an example.

ANS:

Federal government Unitary government

a) In a federal form of government, a) In unitary form of government
the central government shares its either there is only one level of
powers with the various constituent government or the sub-units are
units of the country. subordinate to the central
government.
b) In a federal system, the central b)The central government can pass on
government cannot order the state orders to the provincial or the local
government to do something. State government. Example: UK, China, France.
government has powers of its own for
which it is not answerable to the central
government. Example: India, USA,
Canada.

2. State any two differences between the local government before and after the
Constitutional amendment in 1992.

ANS:
Local governments before the Local governments after the Constitutional
Constitutional amendment in 1992 amendment in 1992

a) Elections were not held regularly. It is constitutionally mandatory to

hold regular elections to local
government bodies.

a) Local governments did not have any The State governments are required
power or resources of their own. to share some powers and revenue
with local government bodies.

3. What is federalism ? Explain key features of federalism.

ANS: Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central
authority and various constituent units of the country.

KEY FEATURES OF FEDERALISM:

a) There are two or more levels (or tiers) of government.

b) Different tiers of government govern the same citizens, but e ach tier has its own
JURISDICTION in specific matters of legislation, taxation and administration.
 c) The jurisdiction of the respective levels or tiers of government are specified in the
constitution.
d) 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
governments.
e) Courts have the power to interpret the constitution and the power of different levels
of government. The highest court act as an umpire if disputes arise between
different levels of government in the exercise of their respective powers.
f) Sources of revenue for each level of government are clearly specified to ensure its
financial autonomy.
4. What are coming together federations and holding together federations. Give
example.

ANS: COMING TOGETHER FEDERATIONS:

a) When independent states come on their own to form a bigger unit so that by pooling in
their sovereignty and retaining identity they can increase their security.
b) In this type of federations, all the constituent States usually have equal powers and are
strong vis-à-vis the federal government.
c) Example: USA, Switzerland and Australia.

HOLDING TOGETHER FEDERATIONS:

a) When a large country decides to divide its powers between the constituent States and
the national government, it is called as Holding together federations.
b) In this type of federations, the central government tends to be more powerful vis -à-vis
the States. Very often different constituent units of federation have unequal powe rs.
Some units are granted special powers.
c) Example: India, Spain and Belgium.
5. Explain how powers are divided between the Union Government and State
Governments.

ANS: The Constitution clearly provided a three-fold distribution of legislative powers

between the Union Government and the State Governments. It contains three lists:

1. 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
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.
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 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: subjects that do not fall in any of these three lists like Computer
software that came up after the Constitution was made comes under Residuary list.
According to our Constitution The Union Government has the power to legislate on
residuary subjects.

Q6) How is Federalism practiced in India?

Ans) The real success of Federalism in India is based on the nature of Democratic politics
and Constitutional provisions in our country.
1. Linguistic States: The creation of linguistic States was the first and a major test for
democratic politics in our country. 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 were created not on the basis of
language but to recognize differences based on culture, ethnicity or geography.
These include States like Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.
2. 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 21 other languages recognized
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.
3. 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 Centre. This led to a
new culture of power sharing and respect for the autonomy of State Governments.

Q.7: What is decentralization? What is idea behind decentralization?

ANS: When power is taken away from Central and State governments and given to local
government it is called decentralization.
The basic idea behind decentralization is that there are a large number of problems and
issues which are best settled at 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 d irectly
participate in decision making. This help to inculcate habit of democratic participation.

Q.8: Explain the structure of Rural Local government.

ANS: Rural local government is popularly known as Panchayati raj. Each village or group of
villages has a gram panchayat. This council consisting of several ward members, often
called panch, and a president or sarpanch. They are directly elected by the adult
population living in that ward or village.

The local government structure goes upto district level. A few gram panchayats are
grouped together to form what is usually called a panchayati samiti or block or mandal.
The members of this representative body are elected by all the panchayat members of that
area. All panchayati samitis or mandals in a district together constitute the Zilla parishad.
Most members of zilla parishad are elected. Members of Lok Sabha and MLAs of that
district and some officials of other district level bodies are also its members. Zilla parishad
chair person is the political head of Zilla parishad.

- - - -