Federal System

• Classifications of governments - unitary and federal.
• Unitary government - all the powers are vested in the national government and the regional governments.
• A federal government- powers are divided between the national government and the regional governments.
• Britain,France, Japan, China, Italy, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Spain have the unitary model of government.
• US,Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Argentina have the federal model of government.

The specific features:

The term ‘federation’ (a Latin word, foedus) means ‘treaty’ or ‘agreement’, between the various units.

Federal Government

1. Dual Government (that is, national government and regional government)
2. Written Constitution
3. Division of powers between the national and regional government
4. Supremacy of the Constitution
5. Rigid Constitution
6. Independent judiciary
7. Bicameral legislature

Unitary Government

1. Single government, that is, the national government which may create regional governments
2. Constitution may be written (France) or unwritten (Britain)
3. No division of powers. All powers are vested in the national government
4. Constitution may be supreme (Japan) or may not be supreme (Britain)
5. Constitution may be rigid (France) or flexible (Britain)
6. Judiciary may be independent or may not be independent
7. Legislature may be bicameral (Britain) or unicameral (China)

A federation can be formed in two ways-

1. Integration (a number of militarily weak or economically backward states (independent) come together to form a big and a strong union, as for example, the US0
2. By way of disintegration (a big unitary state is converted into a federation by granting autonomy to the provinces to promote regional interest (for example, Canada).

• The US is the first and the oldest federation in the world. It was formed in 1787 following the American Revolution (1775–83).
• The Canadian Federation, comprising 10 provinces (originally 4 provinces) is also quite old–formed in 1867.
• The Constitution of India provides for a federal system of government in the country.
• The framers adopted the federal system due to two main reasons–
  i. The large size of the country
  ii. Socio-cultural diversity
• The federal system ensures the efficient governance of the and reconciles national unity with regional autonomy.
• The term ‘federation’ has no where been used in the Constitution.
• Article 1 of the Constitution describes India asa ‘Union of States’.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar:

• • ‘Union of States’ has been preferred to ‘Federation of States’ to indicate two things:
  (i) the Indian federation is not the result of an agreement among the states like the American federation;
  (ii) the states have no right to secede from the federation. The federation is union because it is indestructible.

The Indian federal system is based on the ‘Canadian model’ and not on the ‘American model’. The Indian federation resembles the Canadian.

federation
(i) in its formation
(ii) in its preference to the term ‘Union’ (the Canadian federation is also called a ‘Union’)
(iii) in its centralizing tendency

The federal features of the Constitution of India

• Dual Polity
• Written Constitution
• Division of Powers
• Supremacy of the Constitution
• Rigid Constitution
• Independent Judiciary
• Bicameralism

Unitary features of the constitution

• Strong Centre
• States Not Indestructible
• Single Constitution
• Flexibility of the Constitution
• No Equality of State Representation
• Emergency Provisions
• Single Citizenship
• Integrated Judiciary
• All-India Services
• Integrated Audit Machinery
• Parliament’s Authority Over State List
• Appointment of Governor
• Integrated Election Machinery
• Veto Over State Bills

Critical evaluation of the federal system

The Constitution of India has deviated from the traditional federal systems like US, Switzerland and Australia and incorporated a large number of unitary or nonfederal features.

• KC Where described the Constitution of India as “quasi-federal”.
• K Santhanam - the two factors have been responsible for increasing the unitary bias of the Constitution.
  (i) the dominance of the Centre in the financial sphere and the dependence of the states upon the Central grants
  (ii) the emergence of planning commission which controlled the developmental process in the states.
• Paul Appleby - “extremely federal”.
• Morris Jones - “bargaining federalism”.
• Ivor Jennings - “federation with a strong centralizing tendency”.
• Alexandrowicz - “India is a case sui generis (i.e., unique in character).
• Granville Austin - “cooperative federalism” (a new kind of federation to meet India’s peculiar needs”)
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar - “The Constitution is a Federal Constitution in as much as it establishes a dual polity. Both the Union and the states are created by the Constitution, both derive their respective authority from the Constitution.
• In Bommai case (1994), the Supreme Court laid down that the Constitution is federal and characterised federalism as its ‘basic feature’.

The following trends in the working of Indian political system reflects its federal spirit:

(i) Territorial disputes between states (Maharashtra and Karnataka over Belgaum)
(ii) Disputes between states over sharing of river water(Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over Cauvery Water)
(iii) The emergence of regional parties and their coming to power in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, etc
(iv) The creation of new states to fulfil the regional aspirations, for example, Mizoram or Jharkhand
(v) Demand of the states for more financial grants from the Centre to meet their developmental needs
(vi) Assertion of autonomy by the states and their resistance to the interference from the Centre
(vii) Supreme Court’s imposition of several procedural limitations on the use of Article 356 (President’s Rule in the States) by the Centre.