What do you understand by democratic federalism? How does it promote decentralization of power in India?. (UPSC CSE Mains 2020 - Sociology, Paper 2)
Federalism is a system of government in which powers are divided between two or more levels of government, such as the centre and the states or provinces. Federalism allows for the accommodation of diversity and regional autonomy within a larger political unit.
The Indian Constitution establishes a federal system with some unitary features. It is sometimes called a quasi-federal system, as it contains elements of both federation and union. The Constitution specifies the distribution of legislative, administrative and executive powers between the union government and the state governments. The legislative powers are categorized under a Union List, a State List and a Concurrent List, representing the powers conferred upon the union government, the state governments and the powers shared among them. The Constitution also provides for the establishment of a multilevel or multilayered federation with multiple modes of political power distribution.
The Indian federalism is unique in its context, as it has evolved from a unitary system under British rule to a federal system after independence. Indian federalism has faced several challenges and issues over time, such as the integration of princely states, linguistic reorganization of states, regional movements and demands for autonomy, centre-state relations and conflicts, fiscal federalism and resource sharing, cooperative federalism and inter-state coordination, etc.
Democratic Federalism promotes Decentralisation through the following means
- Enhances Transparency: It also enhances the transparency of government, and the flow of information between government and citizens (in both directions).
- Transparency increases because a much larger number of people than before can see how the government works, and what is happening within the policy and political processes.
- Responsible Government: When democratic decentralisation works well, it makes the government more responsive. The speed and quantity of responses (actions, projects) from the government increase.
- Political and Civil Pluralism: Civil society is galvanised by local governance, and the more people join, the more active and competitive the governance will become. This strengthens political and civic pluralism.
- Alleviate Poverty: Decentralised systems can help to reduce poverty that arises from inequalities between regions or localities because it tends to provide all arenas with equitable representation and resources.
Democratic decentralization is the process of devolving the functions and resources of the state from the Centre to the elected representatives at the lower levels so as to facilitate greater direct participation of citizens in governance.
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