Federalism

One feature similar in India and Belgium is that both are federal systems in which power is shared between the central government and regional/state governments.

One feature different is that in Belgium the regional governments were given constitutional powers mainly to reduce the power of the Centre and accommodate regional diversity, while in India federalism is based on a three-tier system with a Union government, State governments, and later a third tier of local governments. Also, India has a larger role for the Union Government, and some States have special powers.

The main difference is that in a federal form of government, power is divided between different levels of government—for example, the Union and State governments in India. Each level has powers of its own and cannot be simply ordered by the other.

In a unitary form of government, there is usually only one main level of government, or the lower units are subordinate to the central government. The central government can give orders to the provincial or local governments. For example, Sri Lanka is described in the chapter as a unitary system where the national government has all the powers.

Two differences are:

1. Before 1992, local governments were directly under the control of state governments and elections were not held regularly. After 1992, it became constitutionally mandatory to hold regular elections to local bodies.

2. Before 1992, local governments had very little power and no resources of their own. After 1992, the Constitution required state governments to share some powers and revenue with them, and an independent State Election Commission was created in each State.

The sentence should read:

Since the United States is a coming together type of federation, all the constituent States have equal powers and States are stronger vis-à-vis the federal government. But India is a holding together type of federation and some States have more power than others. In India, the Union government has more powers.