Federalism

Federalism is a type of mechanism to run a country or a state or any such territory. A government can either work on the basis of a unitary government or a federal government. As the name suggests, a unitary government has all the authorities and powers in itself. A unit governing the whole can be called a unitary government. A federal government works on the mechanism of cooperation. Some powers are given to the top most level and some powers are designated at the lower levels which makes it possible to run the government. Countries around the world have adopted the system according to their suitability.

The government which is federal, will not seek for concentration of powers in its hand, instead it will divide the powers with regional governments too. The cooperation among these governments is the motif of federalism. Some western countries like Japan, Italy, China, Belgium, Norway etc. have acquired the unitary system of governance. On the other hand, the US, Australia, Russia, Brazil etc. have found the federal governance appropriate for their countrymen. India follows the federal structure of the government.

Features of Federalism- 

There are some important features of federalism. The main component of federalism is the dual government which signifies that one is the central government and the other one is the regional government. With this feature, there arises a need to divide the powers between the governments rationally. So, a balanced division of authority and power is needed between the two. Federal system favors that the Constitution must be the paramount. With conferring supreme powers to the Constitution, its rigidity should be assured otherwise the supremacy will be compromised. It means the Constitution in federalism cannot be altered easily. The Judiciary must be independent in federalism to deal with any discrepancy with the constitution and struck it down. The legislature should be bicameral to deal with matters efficiently. These are basic features of federalism.

If we talk about the unitary constitution, it has many variations in different countries. A unitary government concentrates all the authorities and power under it. The Constitution can or cannot be rigid, which means that the Constitution can be altered easily in some countries like – Britain and cannot be altered easily in some countries like – France. Similarly, the judicial system in unitary government can be or cannot be independent. The two houses system called bicameralism is favored in some countries like Britain. The same is not followed in some countries like- China. So, we see that unitary government can be established in many ways as per the requirements of a system of a country.

Federalism in India- 

The word “federation” is not written anywhere in our constitution. Our constitution commences itself by signifying the thought that India is a union. India is a union that consists of many states. Our Constitution does not authorize any state to leave the group. Our nation has not been built by an agreement with the states, that’s why we don’t give them power to separate from us. So, we don’t use the word “federation”.  Indian Constitution follows federalism but with some unitary features added to it. India has divided the powers between State government and Central government proportionately, India has made its judiciary independent and has also authorized the paramountcy of the Constitution. In some important matters, our constitution cannot be altered without a two-third majority in the parliament whereas in some matters need a combined consensus of regional and central governments. Our Constitution is neither very difficult nor very easy to change. This way, federalism in India is deviated from others. On the other hand, the system of only one citizenship to all the countrymen, the power of the government to impose emergency and deploying the governor in every state give our Constitution a unitary touch also. 

Conclusion-

Our Constitution is often tagged – “quasi-federal” or “compromised federalism” by some scholars due to its nature which doesn’t follow any mechanism blindly. So, we can say that our Constitutional fathers explored and analyzed many facts and facets and prepared it according to our needs, not according to the theories being followed around the globe.