Federalism

Federalism is a system of political organization in which governing authority is constitutionally divided between a central, national government and a number of constituent regional governments, such as states, provinces or lander, each holding a defined sphere of independent authority that the central government cannot unilaterally override, distinguishing federal systems from both unitary states, in which regional government exists only by delegation from the center, and looser confederations, in which the central authority is subordinate to, and dependent on, its constituent members. Modern federalism traces its most influential founding articulation to the United States Constitution of 1787, which divided sovereign authority between the federal government and the individual states, a design substantially shaped by the arguments of the Federalist Papers, and the model has since been adopted, with significant local variation, by a considerable number of large and diverse states, including Germany, India, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Nigeria and Switzerland. Federal systems are commonly adopted by states seeking to accommodate substantial internal diversity, whether geographic scale, ethnic or linguistic plurality, or the deliberate union of previously separate political entities, allowing significant local self-government on many matters while preserving a unified national government for shared concerns such as defense, currency and foreign affairs. The precise division of powers between federal and regional governments, and the mechanisms for resolving conflicts between them, typically through a written constitution interpreted by a supreme or constitutional court, varies considerably from one federal system to another, and remains a recurring subject of political and legal contestation within federations generally.