The Similarities and Differences between American and Indian Federalism - Essay Example

Comparative Federalism The word “Federalism” signifies the distribution of power between the central and the constituent units of the government of acountry. This term is generally used for describing the political scenario prevailing in America. It is a system of government which bestows power to both the state and the central governments. The distribution of power among the central and the states is derived from the written constitution. Both forms of the government rule directly over the people. It is also sometimes seen as a compromise between the extreme concentration of power and loose confederation of independent states for governing a variety of people living in a large territory. Similarities and Dissimilarities with India and USA’s Federal Form of Government USA being the largest democratic countries in the world became the Federal republic state in the year 1789 by promulgating its constitution and India on the other hand in the year 1950 by launching its constitution. Smaller states by forming a union got affiliated with the strong central government that came to be called as Federal government in USA and central government in India. Both the countries have a written form of constitution. Secondly, USA has got its bill of rights to protect the fundamental rights of the people and India has guaranteed the fundamental rights in the articles 14 to 34 in part iii. Thirdly both the countries have Federal forms of government at the centre. The law enacted by the centre is much more superior to the law passed by the state. Both the countries have three basic divisions of labor and power in the Federal system of government; they are known as executive, legislature and judiciary. The executive governs the country, legislature enacts law, and the judiciary administers justice. Both the countries have bicameral form of legislature. In USA president is the chief executive head whereas in India prime minister is the head. USA has got the House of Senate and the House of Representatives as the upper and lower house of legislature while India has Rajya sabha and Loksabha as the upper and lower houses. A well organized judiciary is present in both the countries as apex and Supreme Court. Lastly, both the countries have a threat to democracies so the divisions of power are somehow or the other checked by the other houses of power. Firstly, USA’s constitution is very rigid and has undergone amendment only 27 times but the Indian constitution on the other hand is very voluminous and flexible has been amended 94 times. In USA all the states have their own constitution while in India all the states follow the Indian constitution. Secondly, USA has the presidential form of government but India has the parliamentary form of government. USA follows the bi-party system whereas India has got multi party system. President of USA can hold his office for only two terms whereas in India nothing as such rule is there. In India, Loksabha or the lower house is much more powerful while in USA the upper house i.e., house of senate is more powerful. A senate member is directly elected whereas in India, Rajyasabha members are indirectly elected. Last but not the least, USA has got the advanced judicial system while India is rapidly developing in its judicial system (Lingam) Possible Reforms for the US Government Adopting from India: India has always followed and encouraged in peace keeping operations but on the other hand USA has tried to maintain peace with the help of machinery and men. India has shown real patience to its rival countries by providing timely help to those in need. It had also undergone friendship agreement with its enemy countries like China & Pakistan, timely help to Bangladesh when Pakistan tried to overtook it. These are the policies which the US government may adopt from India (Schaffer, 73; Kesselman, Krieger and Joseph, 286) Possible Reforms for the Indian Government Adopting from the US Technology transfer is what India can learn from US Federal government. It is quite evident from the history and experiences of the US government regarding the technology transfer that it has played a prominent role in boosting the same. For example, in 1862, the Morill Act was further strengthened in 1890. In 1924, the license for patent act was generated by the University of Wisconsin. In 1941, a large corpus was given to office of scientific research for development of weapons. National science foundation was established in 1950 to support research. The Bayh Dole Act of 1980 brought a remarkable change in the US (Hyndman, Gruskin, and Iyer) Sentiments Attached With Each Country The strengthened belief of public on state governments rather than on Federal government as a better functioning machinery of governance has been the predominant episode regarding the implementation of “devolution” policy in United States during 1990s. With the onset of election results in 1994, the concept of new Federalism infiltrated with a group of democrats with national assistance concentrated more on micro analysis strategy or grass root analysis with a holistic view to uplift the existing social condition of the state. During this period it has been empirically found that public opinion is largely in favor of state government’s mechanism in delivering services and economic growth. Such opinion was formed concentrating mainly on much more efficient financial performance by the state rather than the centre. However such favorable public opinion regarding devolution of power in favor of state was largely ignored when under President Bush the system of governance again became centralized. Some state authorized laws like “school testing systems, driver’s license procedures, right to die laws, medical use of marijuana” were preempted by the Federal government which later became the reason for agitation among the common masses (Bowman and Kearney, 40). In India the emphasis on the state government can be readily found in the very popular “Panchayati Raj”. Panchayati raj system took its predominance during the 50s in India and it is a classic example of decentralized governance policy mainly designed to monitor politics and law and order in the villages of India. In order to protect themselves from extreme exploitation of the zamindars and village sardars the people sort resort to Panchayats for justice. The functioning of the Panchayati system has been a completely central driven phenomenon and it has been found in many cases that there is no such separation in allocation of budget in State and district level leading to absence of focus on several priorities in Panchayats. Thus it has been seen there is a departure from the legislative devolution (Swain, 10-38). Thus there has been a mass agitation against the central government about the actual implementation of these policies. Conclusions From the discussion in the above paragraph it is found that both the countries have adopted “devolution” policies at different time frame and authorization of central has been profound over the state governments and the main concern about the common peoples agitation centered around this which has been a matter of debate. Works Cited Bowman, Ann O’M and Richard C. Kearney, State and Local Government, Cengage Learning, 2011 Hyndman, Kelly G., Gruskin, Steven M. and Chid S. Iyer, Technology Transfer: What India can learn from the United States, Journal of Intellec Prop Rights, (September 2005) Vol 10, pp. 399-405, March 8, 2012 from: http://www.nbpgr.ernet.in/pgs-503/015_tech_transfer_learn_from_USA.pdf Kesselman, Mark, Krieger, Joel and William A. Joseph, Introduction to Comparative Politics, Cengage Learning, 2009 Lingam, Rama, The similarities and Differences Between American Federalism and Indian Federalism, Factoidz, 2011, March 8, 2012 from: http://general-law.factoidz.com/the-similarities-and-differences-between-american-Federalism-and-indian-Federalism/ Schaffer, Teresita C. (2009) India and The United States in the 21st Century, CSIS Swain, Pratap Chandra, Panchayati Raj, APH Publishing, 2008 Read More