10th Class Social Science Federalism and Center State Relation Federalism - Important Terms And Concepts

Federalism

IMPORTANT TERMS AND CONCEPTS
 

1. Federalism: "Federalism" is a system of government in which the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country.

2. Unitary System: "Unitary System" is a system of government in which either there is only one level of government or sub units are subordinate to the central government.

3. Jurisdiction: The area over which someone has legal authority, that area may be denned in terms of geographical units or in terms of certain/specific matters, is known as 'Jurisdiction'.

4. Tier System: Tier system is the system which signifies levels of Government. It may be two levels or two tiers and three levels or three tier.

5. Coming Together Federation: It is a type of federation in which independent states come together on their own to form a bigger unit, so that by pooling sovereignty and retaining identity they can increase their security.

6. "Holding Together Federation: It is such a federation in which a large country decides to divide its power between the 'Constituent States' and the 'National Government'.

7. List System: 'List System' states the distribution of powers or subjects through the list like Union List for central/union level, state list for state level, etc. It is the specific feature of Indian federalism.

8. Union List: It is the list given under the jurisdiction of Union government. It includes the subjects or matters of national importance like defense, finance, external affairs, currency, etc. Union government alone can make laws on the Union List subjects.

9. State List: 'State List' is given under the jurisdiction of State Government. It includes the subjects or matters of state and local importance. State Government alone can make laws on the state list subjects.

10. Concurrent List: Concurrent list stands for the subjects of common interest to both the Union Government as well as the State Government. For the concurrent list subjects both the Union as well as the State Government can make laws.

11. Residuary Subjects: Residuary subjects are the leftover subjects which do not fall in any one of the three lists. On the residuary subjects only the Union Government can legislate e.g., computers software and internet.

12. Union Territories: Union territories are the areas which are run by the Union Central Government. They are too small to become an independent state but could not be merged with any of the existing states, e.g., Chandigarh.

13. Linguistic States: The creation of states on the basis of languages is known as the "Linguistic States". Linguistic states recognise differences based on culture, ethnicity or geography.

14. Language Policy: Language policy is the safeguard to the languages. It is one of the important aspects of our constitution. Under this policy besides Hindi 21 other languages are recognised as scheduled languages by the constitution.

15. Coalition Government: Coalition Government is a government formed by the coming together of more than two political parties, since no single party got a clear majority.

16. Scheduled Languages: Languages which are listed in the list or schedule of the constitution are known as the scheduled languages.

17. Non-Schedule Languages: Apart from schedule languages, the languages which are not listed in the schedule of the constitution are known as the "Non- schedule language".

18. Decentralisation: When power is taken away from Central and State governments and given to local government it is called 'Decentralisation'. This concept helps to inculcate a habit and culture of Democratic Participation even at the gross root level.

19. Panchayati Raj: Rural, local or self-government is popularly known as the Panchayati Raj. Under this institution each village, or a group of villages in some states, has a "Gram Panchayat".

20. Mayor: The Chairperson of the municipal corporation is known as the mayor. He is an elected person of that area.

21. Panchayat Samiti: Local Self-Government at the block level is known as the Panchayat Samiti or Block Samiti. It is a representative body which is formed when few Gram Panchayats are grouped together. The members of Panchayat Samiti are elected by the Panchayat members of that area.

22. The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2003: The Citizenship Act introduced a new scheme of "Overseas Indian Citizenship (OIC) Scheme, which allows oversea - Indians to hold dual citizenship. It is only for some specified countries like-USA Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, U.K., etc.