What is Federalism around the world ?

What is federalism?

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Fed­er­al­ism refers to the ver­ti­cal divi­sion of author­i­ty between var­i­ous lev­els of gov­ern­ment. It is a form of gov­er­nance in which pow­er is shared between a cen­tral author­i­ty and the coun­try’s many con­stituent parts.

This fea­ture ensures del­e­ga­tion of pow­er and avoids the con­cen­tra­tion of pow­er under a sin­gle authority.

Lev­els in a Fed­er­al Government

Usu­al­ly, a fed­er­a­tion has two lev­els of government.

1. 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 provinces or states that look after much of the day-to-day admin­is­ter­ing of their state.

Both these lev­els enjoy their pow­ers inde­pen­dent of each oth­er and into their own spheres.

Dif­fer­ence between Fed­er­al and Uni­tary System

1. Under the uni­tary sys­tem, either there is only one lev­el of gov­ern­ment while in a Fed­er­al sys­tem, there exists mul­ti­ple lev­els of government.
2. Under the Uni­tary sys­tem, the sub-units are sub­or­di­nate to the cen­tral gov­ern­ment but in a fed­er­al set­up, they are inde­pen­dent of each other.
3. Under a Uni­tary Sys­tem, 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.

Key Fea­tures of Federalism

1. There exist two or more tiers under a fed­er­al system.
2. Each tier has its own juris­dic­tion and pow­er of leg­is­la­tion, tax­a­tion etc.
3. The exis­tence and author­i­ty of each tier of gov­ern­ment is con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly guaranteed.
4. No uni­lat­er­al changes are allowed. Con­sent is required to alter fun­da­men­tal provisions.
5. Each lev­el enjoys its finan­cial autonomy.

Dual Objec­tives of Fed­er­al System-

1. To safe­guard and pro­mote uni­ty of the country
2. To accom­mo­date region­al diversity.

An ide­al fed­er­al sys­tem has both aspects – mutu­al trust and agree­ment to live together.

Dif­fer­ent Types of Federations

1. Com­ing Togeth­er Fed­er­a­tions – Under this route, inde­pen­dent States come togeth­er on their own to form a big­ger unit, so that by pool­ing sov­er­eign­ty and retain­ing iden­ti­ty they can increase their security. 
2. Ex- USA, Switzer­land and Australia.
3. Hold­ing Togeth­er Fed­er­a­tions – Under this, a large coun­try decides to divide its pow­er between the con­stituent States and the nation­al government. 
4. Ex- India, Spain and Bel­gium. Here, the cen­tral gov­ern­ment tends to be more pow­er­ful vis-à-vis the States. Some spe­cial pow­ers are also granted.

What makes India a Fed­er­al Country?

The Con­sti­tu­tion clear­ly pro­vid­ed a three­fold dis­tri­b­u­tion of leg­isla­tive pow­ers between the Union Gov­ern­ment and the State Gov­ern­ments. Thus, it con­tains three lists:

1) Union List: Under this are includ­ed sub­jects of nation­al impor­tance. Ex- Defence of the coun­try, For­eign Affairs, Bank­ing, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Cur­ren­cy. The Union Gov­ern­ment alone can make laws relat­ing to the sub­jects men­tioned in this list.

2) State List: It 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 this list.

3) Con­cur­rent List: It includes sub­jects of com­mon inter­est to both the Union and the State Governments. 

The list includes Edu­ca­tion, For­est, Trade Unions, Mar­riage, Adop­tion and Suc­ces­sion. Both the Union as well as the State Gov­ern­ments can make laws on it. If there is a con­flict, the Union Government’s deci­sion prevails.

How is Fed­er­al­ism practiced?

The real suc­cess of fed­er­al­ism in India can be attrib­uted to the nature of demo­c­ra­t­ic pol­i­tics in our coun­try. Fed­er­al­ism in India man­i­fests itself through the following-

1. Lin­guis­tic States– This was the first major test for demo­c­ra­t­ic pol­i­tics in India. From 1947 to 2017, many old States have dis­ap­peared, and new States have been cre­at­ed. This expe­ri­ence has shown that the for­ma­tion of lin­guis­tic States has made the coun­try more unit­ed and its admin­is­tra­tion easier.
2. Lan­guage Pol­i­cy– This was the sec­ond test for Indi­an fed­er­a­tion. Our Con­sti­tu­tion did not give the sta­tus of nation­al lan­guage to any one lan­guage. Besides Hin­di, there are 21 oth­er lan­guages rec­og­nized as Sched­uled Lan­guages by the Con­sti­tu­tion. There are also var­i­ous safe­guards pro­vid­ed to pro­tect dif­fer­ent lan­guages as India is very diverse on this ground. This pol­i­cy of flex­i­bil­i­ty reduced inse­cu­ri­ty and con­flicts in the coun­try, while allow­ing for usage of region­al lan­guages for offi­cial purposes.
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, State gov­ern­ments did not enjoy much auton­o­my as fed­er­al units. But from 1990, a lot of region­al par­ties emerged. This was also a peri­od of rise of Coali­tion Governments.

Decen­tral­iza­tion in India

By Decen­tral­iza­tion, we mean divi­sion of author­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty at dif­fer­ent lev­els of hier­ar­chy. India being a vast coun­try could not be admin­is­tered well with just two tiers. Thus, result­ed a third tier of gov­ern­ment, called local gov­ern­ment. This is the ratio­nale for shar­ing of pow­er or decen­tral­iza­tion in India.
When pow­er is tak­en away from Cen­tral and State gov­ern­ments and giv­en to local gov­ern­ment, it is called decentralization. 

There are issues that are best set­tled at local lev­el with people’s par­tic­i­pa­tion and hence the need for this lev­el of gov­ern­ment aris­es. As a result of this, Pan­chay­ats and Munic­i­pal­i­ties gained ground as local mod­els of self- government. 

These were added through an amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion but remained inef­fec­tive on account of bud­getary con­straints and less autonomy.