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International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science
Volume 1, Issue 7, pp
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ISSN (Online): 2456-7361

The Theory and Practice of Federalism: A Critical
Analysis of History and Global Trend
Amadi, O
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; Echem, M
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; Nwoko M
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O
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Efforts were equally geared towards establishing a relationship between the
Principles, Nature and also the Essence of federalism from the ancient up until the modern era
...
This paper therefore recommends
that since Federalism is not universal but context/country dependent, efforts must be made by emerging democracies such as Nigeria in
ensuring that institutional frameworks are built that will facilitate the rapid socio-economic development of their Federations
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I
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This is because it is highly
varied in practice than in theory
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Viewed this way, federalism
can seem a banal idea – not more than a tool kit of machinery
of government for managing regionally complex centrifugal
and centripetal forces in political systems
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This paper contends that there is no finished
federal system or model on the face of earth as every federal
system in the world is in a process of becoming better
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Having established that, we are going to critically analyze
the theory and practice of federalism as well as the historical
antecedents of the concept through the following subheadings;
 Theory of Federalism
(1) Legal institutional view (championed by K
...
Wheare)
(2) Process view (championed by W
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Etzioni)
 Principles of Federalism
 Nature of Federalism
 Essence of Federalism
 Practice of Federalism as a Global Trend (America,
Nigeria, Switzerland, and India/Uganda federalism as basis
of critical analysis)
 Historical Antecedents of Federalism (Greek city States
and the Leagues)
 Summary and Conclusion
II
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The idea originated with the concept of
inter-governmental relations and dates back to the legal
relationships between the Leagues and the City-states
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(1) Legal Instructional View of Federalism
The legal institutional view is also regarded as the classical
definition of federalism that is very much associated with K
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Wherare, an Anglo-Saxon scholar and writer, who is regarded
as the dean and doyen of classical federalism having elevated
the status of federalism to “theory”
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C Wheare’s
postulations on the concept
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Thus making him a point of departure
on all discussions about the theory of federalism
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Wheare’s definition of federalism was predicated on the
American federal structure, which he regarded as model,
archetype or paradigm of federalism perexcellence
...

This postulation of Wheare’s classic formulation of
federalism has been variously criticized for being too rigid,
legalistic and inflexible
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International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science
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federalism
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Similarly, another major
weakness of Wheare’s classification is his confusion in seeing
his institutional criteria as defining characteristics of
federalism which are not, because not all federal system of
government possess these criteria
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This view is at times
referred to as the sociological notion of federalism
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Similarly leading
scholar in the process federalizing
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Therefore any pattern of constitutional arrangement of a
federal state according to Friedrichis merely a short-run view
of a continually evolving process (Kalagbo, 200, and Obiajulu
& Obi, 2010) trying not to be legal or restrictive in his concept
of federalism, Friedrich opined that “federalism is a process
rather than a design… any particular design competencies or
jurisdictions is merely a phase
...
He further asserted that “if thus
understood as the process of federalizing it will be come
apparent that federalism may be operating in both the directing
of integration and differentiation while not disagreeing with
Wheare, Livingston believes that federalism is simply a
political arrangement through which the federal attributes of a
society are expressed
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(3) Power View
According to Kalagbor (2011) the power view formulation
of federalism is associated with Amitai Etzioni because he
takes a strictly political perspective in his understanding of the
federal principle
...
That power is
necessary not only in terms of resource sharing, it is equally
important to understand federalism as a principle of dealing
with group relationship and interaction, in the context of
power sharing federalism according to this view is, therefore
an attempt to cope with the problem of power in the process of
unification of political communities
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This is to ensure that political power is not jijacked
by a major group or groups in society
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III
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e
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(b) Separateness and independence of each government: The
central and regional governments are autonomous in their
rights and domains
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Autonomy in this regard, also means
legal (e
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the existence of a legislative assembly, the
judiciary, state bureaucracy, executive arm of government,
etc) and physical existence”
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This is because the
possession of preponderance of power by any of the
regional government may create some sense of superiority
and arrogance, thereby creating a situation of
disequilibrium, rather than equilibrium, which the federal
system seeks to achieve
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A federal state comprising two or three states is likely to
generate constant conflict, rivalry and struggle for
supremacy
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Thus, multiplicity of states guarantees
understanding, cooperation; independence, tolerance and
stability of the union
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(e) Techniques for division of powers: The techniques for
division of powers between the central government and the
regional governments should be predicted on exclusive
legislative list which defines the powers of the central
government and the Residual Legislative list which defines
the powers of the state regional governments
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International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science
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yet be a third instrument the concurrent list, “which defines
areas where both the central and regional governments
may legislate
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The essence of the
union, therefore, is to unify these differences or simply put,
to ensure peace, stability, unity in diversity or diversity in
unity
...

(g) Constitutional forms: The constitutional form which
modern federal governments take presupposes that where
as there is a federal constitution; the state should also have
their own constitutions, in order to assert their original
authority
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America
constitutes an example of the former, while Nigeria
approximates the latter case (Nwabueze, 2008)
...


NATURE OF FEDERALISM IN PRACTICE

Awa (1976) has argued that many founding fathers of
federations and some writers on federalism often use the terms
federal, confederal and federation, confederation and
confederacy interchangeably
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The advocates of Federalism will
not argue that it be applied everywhere or in every country
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At one
extreme, Federal country such as Venezuela, Malaysia and
Australia are highly centralized
...
But even
so, the Federal Governments in both cases have important
powers, weigh heavily in the fiscal mass and economic
management of the countries, andlead on many key issues of
public policy
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have special Federal powers to intervene in what are normally
the jurisdiction of the constituent units though they may not be
used
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This variety of Federal systems and the apparent overlap
with some decentralized unitary systems raises the issue of
whether Federalism has enough of a substantive core to merit
any standing as a distinct approach to structuring political
systems
...
The essence of Federalism is a regime
in which there are at least two orders of government, each
with distinct relationship to its electorate and each having
some genuine political and constitutional independence from
the other
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It must also avoid a rigid, ideal definition

ISSN (Online): 2456-7361

of Federalism under which perhaps no country would fully
qualify to be called a Federal state
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PRACTICE OF FEDERALISM AS A GLOBAL TREND

Having identified with the theory, nature, principles and
reasons for federalism, let us look into the practice of the
concept across borders
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These countries will form the basis of analysis as we reconcile
abstract connotation of federalism and reality which finds
relevance in the practice across the world
...
Note that there is
always a difference when white colonizes white
...
There were 13
original colonies that were freed from British colonialism that
came together and formed a confederation for the purpose of a
common goal while retaining their autonomy to their
individual colonies (This was the beginning of serious
problems or issues
...
However, some of the colonies
created self-sovereignty known as tread barriers or flanked
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They include
Canada, Mexico and America
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These three states came up with
trade policy among themselves which was not supposed to be
so judging from the policy of confederation (Janda, Berry &
G0ldman, 2000)
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However, even though these were supposed to disintegrate the
confederal system, it strengthened it and that eventually led to
federalism (Janda, Berry & G0ldman, 2000)
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But the three 3 states mentioned above came up with
their own trade policy that would enable them trade among
themselves
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Some of these colonies even created their own
currency which was against confederal policy as well
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In the meeting,
James Morrison argued that there should or that USA should
adopt a federal system and federal constitution
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However,
at the end of the convention, it was agreed that USA would
become a federal state (Janda, Berry & G0ldman, 2000)
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Even as a federal state
with federal constitution, there were still issues on whether the
national government was going to have an all powerful
amount of power above the states
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In USA, the national government and state
government in principle are co-ordinate, but not in the share of
power (Janda, Berry & G0ldman, 2000)
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The presidency over the years
has assumed much power viz-a-viz the state
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International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science
Volume 1, Issue 7, pp
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Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction (3 R)
policy and that gave it more impetus over the state (Janda,
Berry & G0ldman, 2000)
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Regearn argued that it was the state that created the national
while bush countered the argument
...

Features of Federalism in America
a) It has a written constitution that must be operated within
the context of democracy
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c) The constitution has a bi-cameral legislature at the national
level (House of representative and house of senate)
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 Every district must provide 2 senators
 Representation is based on population in the house of
representative
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e) Judicial review: this describes the power the judiciary has
to declare null and void the decision made by the state or
national government that are deemed unconstitutional by
the judiciary
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This
however helps in checks and balances
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E
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(2) Nigeria Experience of Federalism: Preamble on Evolution
Two analyses of the evolution of Nigeria federalism easily
come to mind
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The first argument is that the British deliberately imposed
the federal system on Nigeria in order to maintain a
colonial control of the country after lowering of the union
jack
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2
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This school argues that Nigeria being a large and
culturally variated country coved not have been governed
for long from one centre
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Evolution of Nigeria Federalism
The evolution of Nigeria federalism according to Ola and
Tonwe (2009) can be traced to the British penetration into
Nigeria which began from the annexation of Lagos in 1861 on
the ostenable grounds of stopping the slave(s) trade and ended
with the seizure of what is today known to be Nigeria by 1900

ISSN (Online): 2456-7361

following the defeat of one Nigeria potentate after another
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This was the case of
Nigeria until 1898 when this ethnic groups were lumped
together and christened Nigeria by Flora Shaw later Flora
Lugard
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Consequently
upon this, three separate territories emerged
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The colony of Lagos
2
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The protectorate of northern Nigeria
In 1906, the colony of Lagos and southern protectorate
were amalgamated by Walter representing British government
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In 1914, the colony
and protectorate of southern Nigeria and the northern Nigeria
protectorate amalgamated
by Lugard
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However, so much significance has been attached
to the 1914 amalgamation
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To this effect, Allen in
Ola and Tonwe (2009) argues that Nigeria was born in 1914
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The name “Nigeria” according to
Ola and Tonwe (2009) is even a problem
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For example
the amalgamation exercise of 1914 was not designed to unite
Nigeria
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Even Lugard confirmed that European
brains, capital and energy were not to develop Africa (which
Nigeria is one)
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Three illiterate chiefs were made a mere
advisory body
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For example until January 1951, there
were still three secretariats; the police and prisons were only
amplified in 1930 and 1938 respectively (Ola &Tonwe, 2009)
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It
was only the colonial masters or officials that were elected
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In 1946, Richards constitution was introduced
with regions created
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This laid the foundation of federalism
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Nothing much
actually happened
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In 1954, Lyttleton constitution was introduced
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In 1960, Nigeria had her independence
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International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science
Volume 1, Issue 7, pp
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of the federal republic of Nigeria in October 1, 1963
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That was also
when the British crown was removed from Nigeria
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Note thatIf the balance of power
favours the central government, the constitution would be
classified as qussi-federal (machinery towards unitary) but if
the regional governments control the most important powers,
the constitution is classified as confederal
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Consider the pol-parties
and attitude of people
...

Most important was the state of emergency which the
federal government could employ to exercise control overregion in case of war, public emergency or subversion
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From the above, it is clear that the federation
was one in which the centre was more powerful than the
component units
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This made the game of politics played with scant
regard for rules
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This
could be called ethnic politics which the politicians were
engaged in
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In a nutshell between 1963 -1969 the Nigeria federal
system was in a mess It was a period when politician
embarked on political game of who gets what, when and how
ethnically to the detriment of the federation
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In January 1966 the military
took over power and the head of the military Ironsi suspended
the federal constitution and embarked on plan to turn Nigeria
into a unitary state (Ola & Tonwe, 2009)
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In July 1966, there was a counter coup which brought
Gowon into power
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Under this administration twelve
(12) states were created
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Under this administration,
twelve 12 states were create
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Under this
administration too, the eastern region attempted to secede
from the federation
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The 1979
constitution recognized Nigeria as a federal state with three (3)

ISSN (Online): 2456-7361

orders of government
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Note that the
local government becoming a tie of government contrary to
K
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By 1985, the military took over power again from Shargari
and we began to have another military federalism for another
couple of years before power was handed over to civilians by
Shonekon after the demise of Abacha
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Afigbo in kunle, Adgun,
Rotimi, and George (2004) divided the evolution of Nigeria
federalism into three epochs:
1
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The period of formal federation” (1946-1966)
3
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Sagay (2003) argues that the federation of Nigeria began
as a Unitarian colonial state but disaggregated into three and
later four regions
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The number of states
increased to nineteen in 1979 and to twenty-one in 1987 and
today thirty-one states
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He argued that
Nigeria has recorded “civilian federalism” and “military
federalism” as each has given Nigeria federalism different
shapes and structures
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Features of Nigeria Federalism
1
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The const is supplement
2
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The federal government precedes over matters in the
exclusive list, share responsibility with the state in the
concurrent and prevails over the states responsibility in the
local government
4
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It has a bicameral legislative at the a natural levels member
ship on equal representation
6
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Representation is based on number in the house of national
assembly
8
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It isa presidential federal system
10
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The state and federal impose taxes
12
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It became a
federation in 1848
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By implication it
used to be called Swiz confederation, but now it is called Swiz
federation (Morgan, 2013)
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Switzerland
was a multinational state (Australia, Germany, and France)
which its purpose of coming together to form confederation
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If we are to
compare America and Switzerland, we will observe that the
U
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A was thirteen colonies that formed a confederation; later
America became 23 states and 52 states presently
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You cannot talk about
federalism in Switzerland without emphasis on 1291
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They were twenty six (26)
cantons who came together to form a confederation
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Between 1776 –1789, America was a confederal state
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In 1291, three cantons (Components or states) in
Switzerland also called Ote or Orle (Soveriegn territories or
independent states) came together and formed a treaty
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Also that the cantons in the treaty
would remain sovereign but would have certain spheres of
responsibility in case of external aggression
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This, treaty was to create a
balance to word off external forces
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But at any time that any canton wanted to join, it
would require another treaty (Morgan, 2013)
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He under France is disorganized
all the structures in Swiz and brought the cantons together,
thereby centralizing the states
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After this defeat, the cantons went back to
their original states to become sovereign as they were before
the inversion
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Meanwhile, among the cantons were
the Catholics cantons and the Protestants cantons
...
They wanted
the old way (confederation), while the protestants cantons said
that Europe was modernizing and that it would be wise if they
follow sooth (Morgan, 2013)
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However, the protestant cantons used force, fought and
defeated the catholic cantons
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That was how federalism came
to stay in Swizerland as practiced today (Morgan, 2013)
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Originally, the cantons were
sovereign states cooperating within a loose treaty of alliance
called the confederation that emerged from the original 600
years-old treaty of alliance between three rural cantons which
developed into a loose confederation with 13 cantons some
associate members and some subordinated territories
(Thomas-Fliener, 2011)
...

Things to deduce from the above are as follows;
 The executive and legislative branches is awarded on
America model
 Unlike the American constitution, the Swiss constitution
can easily be changed
 It has a parliamentary system unlike America that has a
presidential system
 It has both self rule and shared rule unlike America
 Education in domain of the cantons except unwanted
federal where the fed government excesses power
The Features of Swiz Federalism
1
...
Each of the cantons has its own constitution as applied to
the people of the canton
...
There is a federal court that protects and defends the rights
of the citizens irrespective of where the citizens came from
within the cantons
...
Here, there is a similarity between Swiz federalism
and Americas as American constitution has provisions for
fundamental human rights
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4
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The cantons
have their own police (unlike Nigeria) No IG (inspector
general)
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The problem of crime was
addressed within the cantons
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Education is taken care of by the cantons
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It is the
institution for national development
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There were over 3000 municipalities in Switzerland
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The municipalities were not the creation of the Swiz
Federation, rather the creation of the cantons
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There is no dualism between federal and state judiciary
unlike America
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The cantons are always sovereign
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It lacks constitutional review unlike America
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It has bottom –up federalism like America
12
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13
...

14
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15 The cantons have difference official languages
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16
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17
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The cantons run their school
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FEDERALISM IN INDIA AND UGANDA

India is an outstanding case amongst federal states that
emerged from colonialism
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in the period of retreat from colonialism in 1947 and
eventually became a federal state
...
While India is cited as an example of a
country whose federal design involves both holding together,
and coming together, it was really much more the former
(holding together) than, the latter and its historically
established identity and integrity was a key element of its
success in holding together (Imodu, 2009)
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It has regional inclivity
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There is an interaction between Regionalism and
Federalism in India
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Regionalism in
India is seen as lee way for ethno religious accommodation
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HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF FEDERALISM
The ideas of Federalism which originate with the concept
of inter-governmental relations dates back to the Greek
civilization, when efforts were made to describe the legal
relationships between the leagues and the city-states
...
While the various governments freely interacted, no direct
contact between the populace of the various governments was
permitted
...
The government of the league and city states could relate on
how to solve social problems, but such relationship did not
extend to the citizens
...
The citizens of the leagues could only obey the laws
emanating from the leagues, and the same goes with the
citizens of the city states
...

The whole idea of Federalism within this context borders on
understanding the inter-governmental relationship between the
league and city-state in terms of power relations
...

In the Greek experience of Federalism, there was no
relationship of power between the city-states and the leagues
...
The citizens of the city-state obeyed
the laws emanating from the city-state
...
What this means by implication is that the citizens of
both the former and the latter were not obliged to obey the law
emanating from outside their own city-state or league
...
In other to understand this very well, let us
use Nigeria as a case of comparison which explains modern
Federalism
...

For example, as a citizen of Nigeria, when a state
government come up with a law or a policy, that policy will
not stop you from obeying the law of the national government
which must supercede the state law depending on the structure
of the authority within which it operate Note that one of the
reasons, for Federalism is to provide security
...
By
implication, you obey both laws emanating from the state and
Federal obeying two levels of government
...
In a nutshell, Federalism as an idea within the
context of the relationship between the city-state and the
league in Greek political world system centuries ago did not
involve relationship of power among the citizens of the citystate and citizens of the league
...

Modern Federalism (Concept)
There is a gap between the initial ideas of Federalism
...
This is different from
confederation
...
C
...

Livinston as well as other scholars find relevance in the
modern context of federalism as we have discussed in the
above subheadings
...
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
We are going to summarize and conclude this mental
exercise using the views of two major scholars (Wheare and
Livinston) on modern Federalism
...
Their arguments in line with the structural
differentiations of the countries we looked into forms the basis
of our summary and conclusion
...
C
...
Wheare Sees Federalism as a legal constitutional
division of power between two levels of government
...
For
examples, the Nigeria constitution of 1979 clearly defines the
responsibility of the state and national government and
categorized their responsibility into: The exclusive list, the
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The exclusive list is
within the responsibility or the authority of the national
government to carry out e
...
foreign affairs, defense etc
...

But in a situation where there is a conflict between the
responsibility of the state and that of the national government
in the residual list, the national power will always supersede
the state power
...
He also maintains
that a federal state must be a democratic state
...
By implication, you will not say
that a state is federal if the state is not democratic
...
He also posits that a federal state
must have an empire (a judge who settles conflicts)
...
Succinctly put, a Federal state must
have a constitution, must be a democratic state, and must have
an umpire – must have a judiciary or high court
...
C
...

He is talking about certain principles that must be observed for
a state to be designated federal
...
C
...
He argues that there are other social cultural and
economic factors that could designate a state to be federal
...
In other words,
there are certain sociological forces that can constrain the
restructuring or will make possible for the political
arrangement in the society as to respond to these forces
...

Before 1967, Nigeria was basically a federal state with a very
weak centre
...
The regions had so much power, so much so
that the politicians had to retreat to their regions in order to be
relevant in the political system of their regions
...
The Eastern
region took a certain decision that threatened the authenticity
of the federal state
...
However, the national
government took a decision to stop it
...
The
minority were talking about marginalization
...
The national government created more
states thereby imposing federalism on the people
...

To this effect, the root to federalism in the Nigerian
context was not as a result of negotiation, partnership, or
collaboration but by imposition
...
People even said that it was a centralization of
power, while some said that Nigerians practiced unitary
system of government then
...
If we look at the idea of K
...
Wheare and
the idea of Livinston, we will discover that both scholars are at
two ends
...
C
...
So you can look at
federalism from the structural design perspective
...
So, even if it
is a structure or design or process, it means that there is no
finished federal system on the face of the earth or a model
...
Some people keep emphasizing on American
model
...
Every federal system is in a process of
becoming better and American is no exception
...
Rather it became a federal
state in 1787 but not until 1789 when their constitution clearly
defined it as a federal State
...
So, the
American federal system is in the process of becoming better
viz-a viz Nigeria and other federal states mentioned and
unmentioned in this paper
...

REFERENCES
[1]

Awa, E
...
(1976)
...
Benin City: Ethiope Publishing
Corporation
[2] Imodu, M
...
(2009)
...
New York: MD Coy
[3] Janda, K
...
M
...
Challenges of Democracy
...
B
...
An Introduction to Contemporary Political
Science
...
(2013)
...
Delhi: KT Publications
[6] Nwabueze, B
...
(2008)
...
Ibadan: Spectrum Book Limited
[7] Obiajulu, S
...
A (2010)
...
Onitsha: Bookpoint Ltd
[8] Ola, R
...
, and D
...
Tonwe (2009)
...

Lagos: Amfitop Books Ltd
[9] Sagay, M
...
(2003)
...
Delta:
Amdin Press
[10] Thomas-Fliener, N
...
Federalism and Democracy: A Universal
Phenomenon: Canada: Belvi Press

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