Re-Examination of Federal Theories: Prospect and Challenges

Abstract

Literally and historically federalism is the result of an agreement. It is when two or more sovereign States resolve to surrender a part of their sovereignty and join hands to constitute a new nation, a federal polity is born. It is a union without the constituting units losing their own identities (Kashyap, 2012). Irrespective of any variant of federal polity, federalism is relevant only in a situation where the pluralism is territorially based, where particular groups are concentrated in separate territorial units or where the societal diversities are territorially identifiable, definable and separable. It is an arrangement between separate territorial entities to come together or to avoid break-up and stay united by sharing power through free democratic will. In fact, in large nations with multiplicity of diversities, federalism is the only way to democracy. It is also generally understood that the actual functioning of the federal system in any country does not depend on the nature of the constitution or the general legal framework but on the various factors that influence the political processes in the country. The paper aims to analyze and highlight the recent challenges faced by various federal systems all over the world. The changing circumstances like economic crisis, global war, globalization and international terrorism and launching of functional federalism provide a strong input on the subject for a re-examination of various approaches to make it more effective, purposeful and development-oriented.