Federalism and the Concept of Consociationalism : An Experience in Indian Context

Abstract

Today a federal form of governance with its nature and scope is presenting itself as an increasing important and relevant issue with the changing nature of polity. The very idea of consociationalism and the concept of Federalism are very useful tools for understanding any political systems in its core. Actually federalism and consociationalism are both based on compound majoritarianism rather than simple majoritarianism, and both represent modern attempts to accommodate democratic complexity and pluralism, although the two systems are not quite symmetrical, and territorial organization is not the only feature that differentiates each of the term in real sense. Again, in a highly plural society, the decision-making process becomes so competitive that new types of interest aggregations take place, thereby making the system looks like more complicated. My paper exactly emphasizes these fundamental issues within a broad framework of Consociationalism and Federalism in India.