CHAPTER 2 - FEDERALISM ( CIVICS SOCIAL SCIENCE CLASS 10)

What is Federalism?

Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country. Usually, a federation has two levels of government. One is the government for the entire country that is responsible for a few subjects of common national interest. 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 of governments enjoy their power independent of the other.

Key features of federalism:

There are two or more levels of government.

Different tiers of governments govern the same citizens but each tier has its own JURISDICTION in specific matters of legislation, taxation and administration.

The respective jurisdiction of government is specified in the constitution.

The fundamental provisions of the constitution cannot be unilaterally changed by one level of government.

The highest court has the power to solve disputes arising between different levels of government in the exercise of their respective powers.

Sources of revenue for each level of government is clearly specified to ensure its financial autonomy.

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

TYPES OF FEDERATIONS:

Coming together federations: it includes USA, Switzerland and Australia. In this category usually all states have equal power and are strong in front of the federal government.

Holding together federations: the central government tends to be more powerful and compared to the state government. Very often different constituent units of the federation have unequal powers.

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

In 1992 73^rd and 74^th Amendment Acts were passed by the Parliament. All the states had to change their laws about local bodies due to these laws about local bodies due to these amendments. The states were given only one year time for making necessary changes in their state laws.

Before 1992-Local Government was directly under the control of the state government. Elections were not held regularly.  Elections were controlled by the state Governments.

 Local governments after 1992- local government got some powers of their own. Elections were held regularly. An independent state election commission is responsible to conduct the elections.

FEDERALISM IN BELGIUM-Belgium’s defining political feature is its multilingual character with the country divided into three linguistic communities. Flanders in the north is the home to majority of Belgian Dutch speakers, known as Flemish. Wallonia in the south is predominantly populated by French speakers and a small German community inhabits a modest area at the eastern tip of the country. The capital Brussels is a separate bilingual entity.

Belgian is a federal parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy consisting of three communities based on language and three regions. These two types of constituent unit operate at the same level meaning that one does not take precedence over the other. The Flemish and Walloon Regions are divided into 5 province each which are farther sub-divided into municipalities.

The king of Belgians is the head of state and the Prime minister of Belgian is the Head of Government. Executive federal government power is exercised by the Prime Minister. As such there are 5 reginal government in Belgium and Federal one Federal government. The Federal government takes decisions for the country as a whole. A government is made up of ministers and secretaries of state each of whose has their own powers. Home affairs, Foreign affairs, Justice , Public health.