Comparative Politics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Comparative Politics - Research Paper Example Federalism is antagonistic to separatism and the federalists believe in achieving a common good by running the affairs of the government by sharing power and at the same time a reasonable degree of autonomy is granted to the units of federation. Federalism is currently being practiced in many countries of the world which include United States, Canada, India, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and is found to be very useful for sharing power between a central government and the provinces and states. In most of the federal democracies, important issues like currency, foreign policy, energy and defense are governed by the central government whereas the issues related to public welfare and social service such as health, food, education and infrastructure development etc are dealt by the provincial government (Pennington). The division of power in federalism is explicitly stated in the constitution of the federation and thus the right of government of the central government and the states is safeguarded by the constitution and a rational autonomy is granted to the states and provinces forming the federation. Keeping foreign policy, national security and currency with the central government is imperative for creating a strong federation and thus in most of the federations these powers rest with the central government. The remaining powers are divided between the central government and the provinces as per the political and geostrategic scenario of the federation and thus the power sharing pattern differs from one federation to the other. For example in the federation countries like United States and Germany the powers about which the constitution is silent and are not explicitly stated to rest with central or the provincial/state government are retained by the state governments whereas in India, Canada and Argentina such powers are retained by the central government. Federalist system of government provides a