CBSE Class 10 Federalism Notes(CIVICS CHAPTER 2)

What is federalism?

o Has two sets or levels of government, one at a regional level – provinces and states. The other is at the national level – for the entire country.

o Two sets of identities – people belonging to the region as well as the country. Each region has a separate system of government, distinct powers, and responsibilities.

o There are different terms of government. Each has its own jurisdiction in matters of legislation, taxation, and administration; central, regional and local.

o No fundamental provision of the constitution can be changed at any level randomly. Changes require the consent of both levels of government.

o An independent judiciary prevents conflicts between centres and states in the exercise of their powers.

o Sources of revenue for each level of government are clearly specified to ensure stability.

 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND UNITARY GOVERNMENT:

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

 Two or more levels of government.

In the federal system, the central government cannot order the state governments to do something. The only thing which is applicable for the whole country can be applicable

 The state government has its own powers. Separately answerable to the people

 Eg. India

UNITARY GOVERNMENT

1.Only on the level. If there are sub-units, they are subordinate to the central government.

 The central government can pass orders to the provincial or local government.

 The national government has all the powers.

 Eg. China

KINDS OF FEDERATIONS

COMING TOGETHER FEDERATIONS

 Independent states voluntarily form a bigger union.

 They enhance their security by pooling their sovereignty and identity

 The states and the center have equal powers

 Example: USA,

Australia, Switzerland

HOLDING TOGETHER FEDERATION

 A large country decides to divide its power between the states and the central government.

 The central government is always more powerful than the regional states.

 Some units have special powers. Different constituents units have unequal powers.

 Example: India, Spain, and Belgium.

 What makes India a federal country?

o All the features of federalism are present in the Indian constitution. The only difference is that in addition to the two-tier system, India added a third – panchayats and municipalities.

o The constitution has made provisions for the distribution of legislative powers between the union government and the state governments.

o These powers come under three lists – Union list, State list, and concurrent list.

The union list

Has 97 subjects

 Subjects of national interests – defense, foreign policy, atomic energy, banking, post, and telegraphy are included in this.

Only the union government can pass laws on these subjects.

The state list

Has 66 subjects

 Subjects like police local governments, trade and commerce within the state, and agriculture are included

in it.

Only the state government can pass laws on this list.

Concurrent list

Has 47 subjects

Both the center and the states can make laws on the subjects like education, forest, trade unions, marriages, adoptions, and succession.

 There might be some subjects that do not come under any list. (For example, computers, e-commerce). The union government has the power to make laws on these ‘residuary

subjects’.

Special Features of the Indian federation

o Centre is more powerful than the states. All states do not have the same powers. Jammu and Kashmir used to have special status.

o No dual citizenship, like the USA. Every citizen votes as an Indian.

o The constitution provides special powers to the center if there is an emergency in the country.

o Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, or the capital city of Delhi is too small in area to become independent states and are called Union Territories. The union government has the power to run them.

o According to the constitution, the powers of the states and union government is specified, therefore if any change is needed, it has to be passed by both houses of the parliament with at least 2/3 of the majority. Then it has to be ratified (approved) by the legislature of at least 1/2 of the total states.

o The judiciary has the power to oversee the implementation of the constitution.

How is Federalism Practised?

o New states have been created. Areas, boundaries, and names of the states have been changed.

o Creation of new states was done on two bases:

Culture, ethnicity, or geography, e.g., Nagaland, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand.

On the basis of language, e.g., Andhra, Maharashtra and many other.

Language policy

o Our constitution has not made any language the national language of India.

o Hindi is the official language spoken by 40% of the population.

oBesides Hindi, 21 other languages are recognized by the constitution. They are:

 Assamese, Dogari, Kannad, Maithali, Marathi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri,Malayalam, Nepali, Sanskrit, Tamil, Bodo, Hindi, Konkani, Manipuri, Oriya, Santhali, Telugu.

o English was to cease as an official language in 1965. but there were agitations in many states (specially tamil nadu) against this, so English is allowed to continue. English is the 22nd language

Some Facts

o Only 0.02 % Indians has English as their mother tongue.

o 11% know English as the second or third language. The Census of 1991 recorded 1500 distinct languages claimed by people as their mother tongue.

o After grouping them under some major languages, the census found 114 major languages. Example: Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Awadhi, Braj, Bundelkhandi, Chhattisgarhi, Bhili and Rajasthani were grouped under ‘Hindi’.

o Even after grouping, people who knew Hindi as their second and third language, the total number of Hindi- speaking people was less than 50%.

Centre-state relations

o The way constitution has made the centre and the state share powers has also strengthened federalism in India.

BEFORE 1990

 Same party ruled the centre and most of the states.

 This led to the state governments not exercising their rights as autonomous federal units.

 Spirit of federalism under undermined by the central government as they often dismissed state governments controlled by rival parties

AFTER 1990

Rise of regional parties after 1996 changed the situation.

An era of ‘coalition governments’ at the centre began.

Since no single party got a clear majority in the parliament (Lok Sabha), the major national parties formed alliances with several regional parties to for government at the centre.

The state governments now cannot be dismissed by the centre arbitrarily.

Decentralization in India.

o India has a three-tier system of government.

o The three-tier system was adopted because:

 India is a very big country.

 Difficult for the union and state governments to manage big provinces and huge population.

 Decentralization means that some power is taken away from the central and state governments and given to local governments.

Reasons For Decentralization

o In a big country like India, it is essential to have an elected government at the local level also.

o Local people have better knowledge of local problems.

o Local people have better ideas of where to spend money and which problem to tackle first, or how to manage things more efficiently.

o Common citizens can be involved in decision-making, concerning their needs and how to plan development.

o People can approach a local government for solving their problems easily and quickly. The cost is also reduced to minimum.

o Local governments provide training in becoming active participants in the working of a democracy. It trains one for leadership.

o Local governments at grassroot level ensure stability, strength and health of democracy. The 73rd amendment (1992) concerned the rural local governments (referred to as Panchayati Raj Institutions or PRIs). The 74th amendment made provisions for urban local governments (nagar palikas). They came into force in 1993.

o1992: amendments to the constitution (the 73rd and 74th amendments) made the three-tier system more powerful and effective.

o Before 1992: the local bodies were directly under the state governments. Regular elections were not held and the local bodies did not have any resources or powers of their own, no real decentralization.

Important features of the local government bodies

o Mandatory to hold regular elections to the local government bodies.

o Reservations of seats for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes. The rights of Adivasis are protected in a special act passed in 1996.

o 1/3 of positions reserved for women.

o  A state finance commission examines the financial position.

o 29 subjects which were in the state list have been transferred to the Panchayti Raj Institutions by the 11th schedule of the constitution.

o  A state election commission has been created in each state to conduct panchayat and municipal elections.

RURAL LOCAL BODIES:

 All states have Panchayati Raj system .

 Each village or a group of villages has a Gram Panchayat.

 It is a council, consisting of several ward members, often called a Panch or a Sarpanch as its head.

 All are directly elected by all the adult population for a

term of five years. Decision-making body for the entire village.

 The Gram Sabha is the general body with all the villagers as its members. They meet twice or thrice a year and approve the general budget of the panchayat review its work.

 Gram Panchayats grouped together to form Panchayat or Block or Mandal Samitis.

 The members of this body are elected by all the Panchayats of that area.

 All the samitis or mandals in a district together form a Zila Parishad.

 Most members of the zila parishad are elected.

 The MLAs and the Members of the lok sabha, and some other officials of other district level bodies are also its membes. Zila parishad head (chairperson) is its political head.

URBAN LOCAL BODIES:

Urban local bodies are divided into two major categories: Municipal Corporations and Municipalities.

In larger urban areas, there are corporations and in smaller urban areas, there are municipal corporations.

Head of the municipal corporations is called is Mayor, and head of Municipalities is Municipal Chairmen. Some important facts and problems of local government:

o In India, over 36 lakh representatives are elected for the various panchayats and municipalities.

o There are still no significant powers and sources of revenues transferred to the local level of government.

o Though elections are held regularly but gram panchayat

are not held regularly.

NOW ITS TIME TO ANSWER SOME QUESTION

1.Belgium shifted from a unitary form of government to:

2. Which type of government does the Belgium have?

3. In federalism, power is divided between various constituent units and:

4. Which countries follow the unitary system of government?

5. In federal system, central government cannot order the __________.

6. A system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and various constituent unit of the country

is called _____________.

7. State government has powers of its own for which it is not answerable to the _________ .

8. Give an example of coming together federations.

9. Power to interpret the constitution is with the __________.

10. State true/false : In Unitary form of government power is concentrated with the Central Government.

11. The place of Rajasthan where India conducted its nuclear tests in -_________.

12. The first and major test for democratic politics in our country was __________.

13. Indian official language is __________ .

14. How many languages are included in the Eight Schedule of the Indian Constitution?

15. Which language has status of the national language in India?

16. The municipal corporation officers are called _________.

17. Who can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the Union list?

18. Federations have been formed with the two __________.

19. The state which violently demanded that the use of English for official purpose should be continued, is __________.

20. Major step towards decentralisation in India was taken up in __________ .

23. Who has special power in administering the Union Territories in India?

24. Who is the head of urban local government?

25. When power is taken away from state governments and is given to local government, it is called __________.

26. Holding together country decides to divide its power between the .......... and .......... .

27. First major test of democratic politics in our country was the creation of .......... .

28. . Under the .......... system, either there is only one level of government or the sub-units are subordinate to the central

government.

29. . .......... list includes subjects of national importance such as defence of the country, foreign affairs etc.

30. The .......... overseas the implementation of constitutional and procedures.

31. .......... in India enjoys a special status. This state has its own constitution.

READ EACH OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS AND WRITE IF IT IS TRUE OR FALSE.

32. Besides Hindi, India has 21 official languages.

33. 1980s was the era of coalition governments.

34. Second test for the Indian Federation was the language policy

35. When the power is taken from the local and state government and given to central government, it is called

decentralisation.

36. Decentralisation helps to build effective communication.