Test: Federalism - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Regional government had existed in Belgium even earlier and had their role and powers but this was withdrawn by the central government. This was changed in 1993 when the regional governments were given constitutional power that were no longer dependent on the central government. Thus, it shifted from a unitary to federal form of government.

• Federalism is a system of government in which the 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 for the entire country that is usually responsible for a few subjects of common national interest. The others are governments at the level of provinces or states that look after much of the day-to-day administering of their state.
• Both these levels of governments enjoy their power independent of the other.
• In India, we have a three-tier government, i.e. government at the central level, state level and local level. 

In India, the Panchayati Raj now functions as a system of governance in which gram panchayats are the basic units of local administration.
The system has three levels: 
1. Gram Panchayat (village level),
2. Mandal Parishad or Block Samiti or Panchayat Samiti (block level)
3. Zila Parishad (district level).

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

• Holding together federation is nothing but the division of powers between the states of the country and central government of that country.
• Central government is more powerful in holding together federation. India is an example of this kind of federation.

In India ,central government tends to be more powerful as compared to state government(i.e.holding together federation) Therefore, in case of clash on making laws on topics of concurrent list union government prevails as being more powerful.

The central government can pass on orders to the provincial or the local government. But in a federal system, the central government cannot order the state government to do something. The state government has powers of its own for which it is not answerable to the central government.

Statement 1: Banking is included in the Union List of the Indian Constitution. The Union List, also known as List-I, is a list of 100 items in the 7th schedule of the Constitution. The Union List includes subjects of national importance, such as banking, defense, foreign affairs, communications, and currency. This statement is correct.
Statement 2: The Union government makes laws related to banking. The Union List includes subjects of national importance, such as banking, foreign affairs, defense, communications, and currency. This statement is correct.

1. Union territory is an area which is run by the central government directly.

2. Local Self is a decision making body for the entire village.

3. Coalition is an alliance of more than two parties.

4. Zila parishad is the representative government at district levels.

• 'Coming Together' refers to the form of federalism where small individual states come together to form a Union or Nation.
• In this type of federalism the states have individual identity and have majority of control over their governance.
• Switzerland is a country which combined different states together to form a country and hence an example for 'Coming Together' federation.
• USA is also called a coming together federation because in it various states have signed deal and are now united. In this way, the states have formed a bigger unit and also increased their security, power and also could avail better opportunities and facilities.