Federalism Definition & Examples PDF

What is federalism? Let us get back to the contrast to be, for all practical purposes, a between Belgium and Sri Lanka...

What is federalism? Let us get back to the contrast to be, for all practical purposes, a between Belgium and Sri Lanka unitary system where the national that we saw in the last chapter. You government has all the powers. would recall that one of the key Tamil leaders want Sri Lanka to changes made in the Constitution become a federal system. of Belgium was to reduce the Federalism is a system of power of the Central Government I am confused. government in which the power is and to give these powers to the What do we divided between a central authority regional governments. Regional call the Indian and various constituent units of the governments existed in Belgium government? Is it country. Usually, a federation has even earlier. They had their roles Union, Federal or and powers. But all these powers two levels of government. One is the Central? were given to these governments government for the entire country and could be withdrawn by the that is usually responsible for a Central Government. The change few subjects of common national that took place in 1993 was that the interest. The others are governments regional governments were given at the level of provinces or states constitutional powers that were that look after much of the day- no longer dependent on the central to-day administering of their state. government. Thus, Belgium shifted Both these levels of governments from a unitary to a federal form of enjoy their power independent of government. Sri Lanka continues the other. Federal political systems Germany Russia Canada Belgium Austria Switzerland United States of America Spain Bosnia and Pakistan Herzegovina St. Kitts India Mexico and Nevis Nigeria Pacific Ocean United Venezuela Arab Ethiopia D e m o c ra t i c Po l i t i c s Emirates Atlantic Comoros Malaysia Pacific Ocean Brazil Ocean Indian Ocean Micronesia Australia Argentina South Africa Source: Montreal and Kingston, Handbook of Federal Countries: 2002, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002. Though only 25 of the world’s 193 countries have federal political systems, their citizens make up 40 per cent of the world’s population. Most of the large countries of the world are federations. Can you notice an exception to this rule in this map? 2024-25 14 Chapter 2.indd 14 08-04-2022 12:30:50