Federalism, Evolution Theory and Practice: The Pakistani Federal Canvas

Abstract

Federalism is the most refined and effective state structure that most of the nation states in the modern times have adopted for the working and functioning of the state machinery. Though, there is a space for debate that which system, whether unitary or federal system is better because unitary form of government in some states is equally producing good results and ensuring public goods however, most of the countries in the West have adopted the federal structure for their states and they are producing better results and apparently their supremacy in the world is connected with the success of their system. The founding father of Pakistan had adopted federalism as the ultimate panacea of all the challenges confronting the regions. The concept of federation which was afoot after the passage of Indian Act of 1935, has had been applied in Pakistan since 1947. The history had witnessed federal structure, successfully or unsatisfactorily but it has been working since the birth of the country. In fact, the history of federalism is the oldest one and therefore numerous thinkers and philosophers have written sufficiently about the concept of the state, its structure and it’s functioning in various epochs of history. Therefore, it is of immense importance to understand how and why the federalism emerged and what kind of functions it performed from ancient city states of Greece to modern times and what the philosophers have spelled out about the better and smooth functioning of the federal structure in modern times. However, an attempt is made to understand the different theories about the federalism so that theoretical framework of the thesis can be built to prove the point that, where there is mature and refined federal structure, the state machinery functions for the betterment of state and society as the federating units take more duties to shoulder the responsibilities of the internal matters whereas the external matters and key subjects remain in the domain of the federal government. The hypothesis of this paper is, while keeping in view the success of the system of federalism at international democratic canvas, why it has not been given its complete fruits in the chequered political environment of Pakistan while comparing other countries. This research is to understand the various theories, that will enable us to understand and construct the history of working of the federal structure of Pakistan and to explore how Federalism dealt with the problems of marginalisation and widespread polarization in Pakistan.