Federalism As a System of Government - Essay Example

A. Federalism is a system of government in which the power to rule the country and the sovereignty is divided between a central government and smaller political units which are generally provinces or states. A federation always works on the principle of democratic rules in which the rules of power sharing are divided between the elected governments at the centre and at provincial levels. The advantages and disadvantages of federalism are discussed in the following paragraphs (Anderson). Federalism promotes diversity in the system by allowing states and provinces to devise their own policies in matters related to public welfare such as education, health and agriculture whereas at the same time it also ensures the unity among the various units of the states by giving the national responsibilities like currency, foreign affairs and defense to the central government. Federalism creates a very healthy political environment in the country which ensures political activity at the grass root level as well because the system of provincial and the system of local governments directly involve people in political activity. In this way people get to know about correct policy making and various policies can be tested in the country at the same time; better political grooming ensures better political leaders as well. Due to the disintegration of powers to various systems of governments reaching the grass root level through local and provincial governments, federalism provides a system in which good governance can be ensured (Dautrich and Yalof). Each government has its own responsibility, federal government is responsible for the security of the country, provincial governments are responsible for the welfare of the public whereas local governments are responsible for providing services to the public; in this way the duties are divided and governments can work with greater efficiency and their performance is greatly enhanced. Federalism gives a certain degree of independence to governments for exercising their authority in their areas of public welfare and state responsibility, however due to the presence of parallel governments in the system, accountability is ensured. Federalism ensures stability of the country by ensuring the provision of rights to each and every individual of the country (Elazar). Federalism has turned out to be a very successful system of government however it has certain disadvantages as well. It allows certain disorderly members of the society to manipulate laws of taxation on various different commodities by purchasing and using them in different states because the government cannot impose tax or duty on interprovincial transfer of goods. The diversity in other laws which include laws related to criminal offense also allows the wrongdoers to escape punishment by moving to another state where the offense is not punishable under law. The laws related to social contract like marriage and inheritance are also exploited by people due to diversity among them in provinces and states. In certain situations the system of federal government allows interstate conflict to occur because certain projects related to natural resources and infrastructure which are beneficial for one state can affect people and the interests of any other state, in such a situation a rivalry between the states is promoted and thus the spirit of nationalism is greatly damaged. Federalism very often leads to disputes between states over the division of resources and responsibilities among the states. The federal system of government with its all system of governments is economically very costly to support because there is a large number of elected representatives and officials in the government which are salaried by tax money (Freely and Rubin). The presence of three parallel systems of government also creates complexity in the governance. The federal government is always biased towards one or another province because of the inherent attachment with a political party and thus in certain areas of governance where the provinces and states have a conflict of interests, the federal government can give unjustified support to one state and this can have serious consequences with regards to national unity because federal government has the control of the bulk of the resources. Federalism also divides provinces and states on linguistic and cultural basis (Smith). B. Under the constitution of the United States, there are four types of powers associated with the federal government. The express powers are the ones about which the constitution clearly states them to be granted to the federal government; these include the enforcement and collection of taxes, devise the foreign policy and policies related to national security. In this regard, federal government has the right to increase or decrease the defense expenditure for the development of the armed forces as per the requirements of national security. The federal government is independent in deciding about international alliances with other countries and regional bodies, the constitution also gives it the right to wage war on other countries deemed as threat to national security (Holdstedt). Under the constitution, the regulatory body for commerce between various states is the federal government. The elastic clause of the constitution gives additional powers to the federal government allowing it to take actions in matters of national interest. The debate about the powers for the creation of a national bank in the beginning of the 19th century was based on these types of powers. Such powers are called implied powers because the constitution has not stated them very clearly. There are certain actions which the constitution clearly denies the federal government to exercise; these are known as denied powers. For example the constitution does not give federal government the right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, unless it involves national security, similarly the federal government cannot pass a bill of attainder or ex post facto law. The powers are given to the federal government under the federal law and according to the article 6 of the United Sates’ constitution; federal law takes precedence over state law. The powers which are clearly given to the states under the constitution are known as reserved powers, these include the running of public welfare departments in state like health, education, agriculture, commerce etc. The powers of levying taxes, borrowing money and chartering corporations has been granted to both state governments and federal government and thus are known as overlapping powers. The constitution also provides guidelines for interstate relationships under which every state is bound to observe the laws of other states and all the states are supposed to cooperate with each other for ensuring public welfare and rule of law. Certain provisions of the constitution have remarkably increased the powers of the nation or the federal government in the modern scenario of economy and national security. The inherent powers given to the federal government are much larger as compared to the powers given to the provinces because currency, foreign affairs and defense are the most important departments in any country. The implied powers give unlimited rights to the federal government because they are implied from other laws and constitution lacks clear statements about these powers. The constitution gives enormous powers to the central government by giving it the right to initiate welfare programs on its own rather than channelizing the tax money towards state and local governments. Due to the limited powers and resources allocated by the constitution, the state governments cannot address economic and sociopolitical problems of large magnitude and this issue is exploited by the federal government for seeking more powers. The powers given to the states are also funded by the federal government and thus they are highly dependent on the federal government. The bulk of the state income comes from the interstate commerce and trade but the constitution has selected federal government as the regulatory body for interstate affairs and thus all the taxes on interstate commerce and trade are levied by the federal government further decreasing the powers of the states (Zimmerman). Works Cited Anderson, George. Federalism: an introduction. N.p.: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print. Dautrich, Kenneth, and David Yalof. American Government: Historical, Popular, and Global Perspectives. N.p.: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Elazar, Danial. Federalism Theory and Application. N.p.: HSRC Press, 1995. Print. Freely, Malcolm, and Edward Rubin. Federalism: political identity and tragic compromise. N.p.: University of Michigan Press, 2008. Print. Holdstedt, Melissa. Federalism: history and current issues. N.p.: Nova Publishers, 2006. Print. Smith, Jennifer. Federalism. N.p.: UBC Press, 2005. Print. Zimmerman, Joseph. Contemporary American Federalism: The Growth of National Power. N.p.: SUNY Press, 2009. Print.   Read More