federalism

Federalism is a system of government in which 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 of entire country that is usually responsible for a few subjects of common national interest.the others are governments at level of provinces or states that look after much of day-to-day administering of their state.Both these level of governments enjoy their power independent of the other.

some of the key feature of federalism:

• their are two or more levels of government
• different tiers of government govern the same citizens,but each tier has its own jurisdiction in specific matters of legislation,taxation and administration
• the fundamental provisions of the constitution cannot be unilaterally changed by one level of government.
• courts have the power to interpret the constitution and the power of different levels of government
• the federal system thus has dual objectives:to safeguard and promote unity of the country,while at the same time accommodate regional diversity.

the exact balance of power between the central and state government varies from one federation to another.this balance depends mainly on this historical context in which federation was formed.their are two kinds of route though which federation have been formed .the first route involve independent states coming together on their own to form bigger unit,this type of coming together federations involve USA,Switzerland,Australia.

The second route is where a large country decide to divide its power between the constituent states and the national government ,India Spain and Belgium are the examples of this kind of holding together federations.