History

Saif Baksh

Political Science Midterm

Part One:

The federalist structure of power is the code of sharing sovereignty between central and state governments. The existence of a federation does not depend on the extent of decentralization but only on the formal sharing of sovereignty. Federalism is a common method of political organization in large heavily populated states such as India and the US. The unitary structure of power is where sovereignty belongs to the national level of government and lower levels exist at its discretion. The contrast is with federations in which sovereignty is shared between levels. In reality, even unitary states practice considerable de-concentration, decentralization and devolution.  The con-federalist structure of power is a confederation that is a weak link between participating countries, in which the members retain their separate statehood. Confederations fall between two stools, lacking both the flexibility of a traditional alliance and the binding character of a federation.  A confederation sets up the minimum limits of a nation-state. It defines a border, it sets rules for passage through the territory within that border, and it sets foreign policy of treaties, war, and peace. A federal system expands on this, giving the national government more power to regulate internal affairs that cross state boundaries, and setting minimum guidelines for how government operates within and among the states. A unitary government takes the principle of centralization even further, and either eliminates regional governments completely, or restricts them to an administrative role that is subject to control from the national government at any time.

In a presidential system, the president is the head of government and the head of state. As the head of government, he or she oversees the operations of the government and fulfills certain duties, such as appointing officials and advisers to help run the government, signing or vetoing...