Federalism

This chapter of Class 10 Political Science (Democratic Politics-II) explains federalism as the vertical division of power between a central authority and the constituent units of a country. It defines federalism, lists its key features, and contrasts it with a unitary system using the examples of Belgium (which shifted from unitary to federal in 1993) and Sri Lanka. It distinguishes 'coming together' federations such as the USA, Switzerland and Australia from 'holding together' federations such as India, Spain and Belgium. The chapter then examines what makes India a federal country: the Constitution declares India a Union of States, provides a three-tier system of government, and divides legislative powers through the Union List, State List, Concurrent List and residuary powers. It studies how federalism is practised in India through the creation of linguistic States, a flexible language policy (Hindi as official language, 22 Scheduled Languages, and the continued use of English), the restructuring of Centre-State relations in the coalition era after 1990, and decentralisation through the 1992 constitutional amendment that gave a three-tier local government - panchayats and municipalities - reservations, State Election Commissions and State Finance Commissions. A high-scoring and conceptually rich chapter of the Board syllabus.