Question

Fill in the blanks:
Since the United States is a ___________________ type of federation, all the constituent States have equal powers and States are ______________vis-à-vis the federal government. But India is a _____________________ type of federation and some States have more power than others. In India, the ____________ government has more powers.

Answer 1

Hint:Federations are generally contrasted along with unitary governments. Under the unitary system, either there is only one level of government or the sub-units are referred subordinate to the central government.

Complete Solution:
Since the United States is a coming together type of federation,all the constituent States possess equal powers and States are strong vis-à-vis the federal government. But the country of India is a holding together type of federation and some states in India have more power than others. Here,the central government has more powers.
Therefore the federal system possesses dual objectives: To safeguard as well as promote the country's unity , and also at the same time it accommodates regional diversity too. Thus, two aspects are said to be important for the institutions as well as for the practice of federalism. Governments at different levels must also agree to some rules of power-sharing. They should also trust that either of them would abide by its part of the agreement. As an ideal federal system includes both aspects: mutual trust and an agreement in order to live together.
The exact balance of power among the central and the state government varies from one federation to another. This balance totally depends over the historical context in which the federation has been formed. There are two types of routes through which federations have been formed. The first route signifies independent States coming together on their own in order to form a bigger unit, so that by pooling sovereignty as well as retaining identity they can raise their security. This kind of ‘coming together’ federations consists of countries like the USA, Switzerland and Australia. In this first category of federations, all the constituent States generally have equal power and are strong vis-à-vis the federal government.
The second route refers to where a large country decides about dividing its power among the Constituent States as well as the National Government. Countries such as India, Spain and Belgium are the examples of this type of ‘holding together’ federations. Whereas, in this second category, the central government generally tends to be more powerful vis-à-vis the States. Very frequently different constituent units of the federation possess unequal powers. Only some units are granted with
special powers.

Note:
Federalism refers to a system of government where the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country. In general, a federation consists of two levels of government.
Examples of the federation or federal state are the United States, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Nigeria, and Australia.