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Showing posts from March 13, 2019

CHANGING CONCEPT OF FEDERALISM

Merriam Webster dictionary defines “federal” as “of or constituting a form of government in which power is distributed between a central authority and a number of constituent territorial units however there being nothing static about the federal concept, no country can be be said to have ‘pure’ federalism in the sense of there a complete equality of status, between the Centre and the States. In fact in Canada and USA federations, the focus is on “cooperation ” between the Centre and the states rather than on independence of states. It is extremely difficult to hold that federalism must accord with standard or fixed line. Thus a federation can move towards either way, left or right, depending upon the degree of power conferred on the Central (federal) government and as such need not to accord with any standard, immutable, fixed mould. With passing of thought of laissez faire into desuetude and the consequent concept of ‘welfare state’, some constitutional adjustments have to be made