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1. The 42nd and 44th Amendment Acts of 1976 and 1978 respectively have made the ministerial advice binding
on the president.
2. How Britain is Governed is a popular book written by him.
3. This theory was propounded by Montesquieu, a French political thinker, in his book The Spirit of Laws (1748) to promote individual liberty. He stated that concentration of powers in one person or a body of persons would result in despotism and negate individual liberty.
4. K.T. Shah favoured the adoption of the presidential system.
5. Constituent Assembly Debates, Volume VII, p. 284-5.
6. Constituent Assembly Debates, Volume VII, p. 32.
7. For details in this regard, see the section on the 'Sovereignty of Parliament’ in Chapter 22.
8. For example, three prime ministers, Indira Gandhi (1966), Deve Gowda (1996), and Manmohan Singh (2004), were members of the Rajya Sabha.
P
olitical scientists have classified governments into unitary and federal on the basis of the nature of relations between the national government and the regional governments. By
definition, a unitary government is one in which all the powers are vested in the national government and the regional governments, if at all exist, derive their authority from the national government. A federal government, on the other hand, is one in which powers are divided between the national government and the regional governments by the Constitution itself and both operate in their respective jurisdictions independently. Britain, France, Japan, China, Italy, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Spain and so on have the unitary model of government while the US, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and so on have the federal model of government. In a federal model, the national government is known as the Federal government or the Central government or the Union government and the regional government is known as the state government or the provincial government.
The specific features of the federal and unitary governments are
mentioned below in a comparative manner:
The term 'federation’ is drived from a Latin word foedus which means 'treaty’ or 'agreement’. Thus, a federation is a new state (political system) which is formed through a treaty or an agreement between the various units. The units of a federation are known by various names like states (as in US) or cantons (as in Switzerland) or provinces (as in Canada) or republics (as in Russia).
Table 13.1 Comparing Features of Federal and Unitary Governments
Federal Government Unitary Government
Federal Government | Unitary Government |
1. Dual Government (that | 1. Single government, that is, |
is, national | the national government |
government and | which may create regional |
regional government) | governments |
2. Written Constitution | 2. Constitution may be written (France) or unwritten (Britain) |
3. Division of powers | 3. No division of powers. All |
between the national | powers are vested in the |
and regional | national government |
government | |
4. Supremacy of the Constitution | 4. Constitution may be supreme (Japan) or may not be supreme (Britain) |
5. Rigid Constitution | 5. Constitution may be rigid (France) or flexible (Britain) |
6. Independent judiciary | 6. Judiciary may be independent or may not be independent |
7. Bicameral legislature | 7. Legislature may be bicameral (Britain) or unicameral (China) |
A federation can be formed in two ways, that is, by way of integration or by way of disintegration. In the first case, a number of militarily weak or economically backward states (independent) come together to form a big and a strong union, as for example, the US. In the second case, 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). It comprises 50 states (originally 13 states) and is taken as the model of federation. 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-the large size of the country and its socio- cultural diversity. They realised that the federal system not only ensures the efficient governance of the country but also reconciles national unity with regional autonomy.
However, the term 'federation’ has no where been used in the Constitution. Instead, Article 1 of the Constitution describes India asa 'Union of States’. According to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the phrase '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; and (ii) the states have no right to secede from the federation. The federation is union because it is indestructible.1
The Indian federal system is based on the 'Canadian model’ and not on the 'American model’. The 'Canadian model’ differs fundamentally from the 'American model’ in so far as it establishes a very strong centre. The Indian federation resembles the Candian federation (i) in its formation (i.e., by way of disintegration); (ii) in its preference to the term 'Union’ (the Canadian federation is also called a 'Union’); and (iii) in its centralising tendency (i.e., vesting more powers in the centre vis-a-vis the states).
The federal features of the Constitution of India are explained below: