Australian Federalism - Case Study Example

Case Study on Federalism [Name of the author] [Department name and section number of course] [Name of the supervisor and date] INTRODUCTION The term federalism is a very arbitrary term and needs specification as per the social set up of the state. As for the countries in Europe, "federalism" is describes the political system that favours a stronger federal government. The definition of federalisn gets distributed as weaker and stronger federalism. As for the weaker section it is represented by the governance under the European Union, whereas the stronger type is exemplified by the federal nations of Europe, like that of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. These are called the countries with stronger federalism as they have got the sub-national states with more power than the national government. UREN’S IDEA The study as has been made by D. Uren 2004 there are many perspective of a federal form of government where the purposes are all related to the commonwealth theme. He considers the definition as forwarded by John Howart, Tony Abbort and Peter Costello, as dysfunctional, feral and failing. He finds that it is the commonwealth state that always takes over the section related to health whereas the central authority of the state takes charge of the educational section. According to Costellos point of view, there cannot be any space for the independent government to share the section related to the hospitals that gives the amount of the revenue from the GST.Uren believes that it is very important for a commonwealth federal state to have more independence than other states. Uren further states that the breakdown as has happened between commonwealth and the states is from the root cause as been bestowed upon the Victorian Government. It was by this government that the state was not provided with the assistance of drought funding to farmers, whereas they were also being helped by the Commonwealth. The emergence of independent and federal form of commonwealth came into being after certain decisions are taken. There was the declaration for the establishment of the new system of technical secondary colleges that will be operated by TAFE. It was through the local parent association that an amount of $1 billion are contributed, and not from the local state. There was also the decision of $2billion payments that gets paid for the states for the reformative purposes1. Under the structure of commonwealth; the dominance is completely political and is strictly in law by agreement of the people for the common good. The most interesting feature is in the accomplishment of a federated union that constituent states. Commonwealth looks forward for a community of sovereign states for smooth functionality of its features under universal appeal and contributions. The compulsion is of having a republic structure along with the democratic constitutional monarchy. The formation is to show the proceedings under the structure of social and universal welfare. global practices Federalism is well structured by the six Australian colonies. These are the regions that have got the federated form of ruling under the Commonwealth structure. This was intoth being of governance of since 1901. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act adopted a typical federalism without making any space or unitary formation. The Parliament of Australia is an amalgamation of British, Canadian and American systems of governance. It is still basically a federal country as all of its states are having dominance over their own peripheries. The term Commonwealth is a very important word in Australia is the federal government and "Commonwealth of Australia" is the official name of the country. Whereas in the United Ki2ngdom, England uses the term in more specified way. In England, Commonwealth is the term that is used to represent the official name of the political unit. In a way it is the term that stands for the military rule in place of the parliamentary form. The attempts to give England the structure of commonwealth was mainly done by former Labour MP Tony Benn. He in fact initiated many meetings for the same purpose. Under his supervision there was the introduction made in favour of a Commonwealth structure of Britain Bill3. The idea was for the abolition of monarchy and establishment of a British republic rather with more federal entities. Though there were many uproars yet the re were no denial to the fact that people too accepted the idea though never had the second reading. Figure 1 The Commonwealth realms, shown in blue Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_realms The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a kind of combination of various kinds of states that are contributing towards universal development. These are the confederation that has got 11 of the 15 former Soviet Republics, with the contributions from Turkmenistan, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. As The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) gets created, there was an immediate termination of the Soviet Union. The chief purpose was that of being into a state where they may "allow a civilized divorce" between the Soviet Republics. It is a developed form for the globalisational aspects social welfares. There is also this capitalized "Commonwealth". Capitalized "Commonwealth" is the combination of 53 members Commonwealth of Nations. As earlier the "British Commonwealth" was a loose confederation of nations and the members from Mozambique, which was a Portuguese possession, were not much under integration4. The both republics and monarchies are integral part of Commonwealth. The federalist aspect is very strong and thus the dominance of political periphery is much appreciated. LACK OF COORDINATION The emergence of commonwealth is the result of a straight lack of coordination between the central government and the local governance. There was a big gap that was supposed to be filled only if the state adopts the commonwealth attitude. In most cases it has been found that there is a gap between the understanding of the government at the central and the local level. It is here that the states prefer to be more into the features of commonwealth nation than to be a part of the unitary form of government. The matter is more about attaining sovereignty than being a part of a broader political circulation. In a commonwealth structure it is that system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authorities and constituent political units. The sovereignty gets shared between the powers of government in a federal structure. It is the dominance of the power as gets shared between the national and state governments for more independence and more legal authorisation. As developed from the original phrase "common-wealth" or "the common weal”; the term commonwealth comes from the old meaning of "wealth,". Just like its activities and motto it is the condition for the considerations made towards the "well-being" of every possible aspect of human and environmental life5. Literally it stands for the universal understanding of "common well-being". Commonwealth thus is a state or nation-state governed for the common good. Its functionalities as gets listed are all against an authoritarian state governed for the benefit of a given class of owners. It is the means to attain sovereignty and the purpose of dominating the well being of the globe. With the political and social changes the term and its usability also has transformed in a very vast way. It is more related t the political community than any other structural unit. As to check the institutional roles we can state the Presbyterian denominations. Under this form of governance the local church is ruled by elected elders. After this each of the churches sends representatives to presbyteries. This is in a way an extension to a general assembly with the participation of proportionate ruling authority over its constituent members. In this structure of federalism there is a kind of independence and a kind of sovereignty over each level of dominance. Presbyterian ecclesiology there is nothing but a strict follow up of shared sovereignty6. It has been discovered by the Productivity Commission that there is a continuous failure about the roles and the responsibilities as get shared under a commonwealth structure nd the state governments. There is a random duplication of effort and as such there is no space for the declarations to be made. It is in a way very expensive as the cost of shifting gets doubled in a two tier government. This also lack in the co-ordination of different service packages. The most dangerous aspect is the reduced accountability of the ruling governance. As there is the option for sharing power in federal form, the deduction of accountability gets shifted and detoriates conversely. Public attachment Under a study made by FitzGerald in spite of all these lacks there are some kinds of substitutions that can be made for the working of federalism in an idealistic way. For him as federalism is a messy subject it suits the accountability of the human administration inasmuch better way. According to him this is the system that is much closure to the people in general and thus we get the quick and continuous response. These are the much prompt responses that get delivered only in the federal form of government. As in the case of UK that has got fourteen overseas territories and all of them are remnants of the British Empire7. As such there is hardly any room for a deeper breath for the commonwealth ideologies. As in contrast to the promptness of Australian governance, there seems to have less dominance of public authority in UK. The federal government can extend its powers and as such there is the republic dominated views gets well rated. Earlier it was the responsibility of the state to look after the dealings and proceedings of education, health, social services and income taxation. It was after the World War II that the commonwealth got the power and dominance and as such raised the taxation part. This was done in order to provide welfare services on the global basis. This was continuing till the constitutional amendments are done in 1946. In today’s scenario it is raisin as big as 71 percent of tax revenue as compared to which the state could only collect 25 percent. As in case of GST the commonwealth delivers more than 1/3rd of the state income. The purpose of Commonwealth is to give global support in case of social welfare and this is done in a far better way than the state’s contribution. There are many instances where commonwealth is performing much better that the state’s performances. In case of the section that is related to health, commonwealth has excelled by far the contributions forwarded by state. The contributions for the federal structure is notable are case of providing support and assistance to the public health and educational programmes. It is very well declared that there are many things that lack in case of the states as compared to the commonwealth structure8. Under the dominance of commonwealth the functionality in case of health is dual. It is as strong as to support both general practitioners and the aged care. As in contrast to this the state only could support the public hospitals. This is all due to the difference that happens in the financial sector. Commonwealth gets much more public support than the state. Added to this its periphery is much better than state and thus get better funded. In case of educational support to the nations the contributions made by Commonwealth is far more than what state has done. The state takes the responsibility of the public schools and TAFE colleges. As in contrary to this commonwealth is contributing towards private school sand universities. There are many aspects that are controlled by state along with the contributions made by commonwealth. One such issue is that of the constructions and maintenance of the roads. Institutional OBJECTIVES The Commonwealth has got some specified objectives which are applicable only if there is a federal form of governance. All these aims and objectives were declared in the 1971 Singapore Declaration. The matter of concern were all related to the institution of world peace; promotion of representative democracy and individual liberty under every aspect. There were many who thought that federalism has got nothing to these institutions. But the fact is that if the government gets distributed than the dominance and functionality of social welfare becomes much comfortable. The chief aim lies in the pursuit of equality and opposition to racism in every corner of the globe. There is a continuous fight against ignorance, poverty, and disease; and free trade across the boundaries of each country. There are also some of the added opposition that are being made to discrimination on the basis of gender by the Lusaka Declaration of 1979. This was an outstanding and devastating step towards the well being of global equality. This was keeping all the opposition against racism9. The recent developments as per the global norms have added more to the Commonwealth's objectives and priorities. The most important aspect and priority is all about the promotion of democracy and development of federalism in every nation. The idea is to build a common platform for its smooth functionality. As federalism gets in the commonwealth goes a step further towards the elaboration of is welfare state. Conclusion The development of a welfare state thus depends on the political construction of a state. It is most important aspect of exploration for all sorts of institution. To function well for the betterment of the society it is very important to function as per the dominance of the social structure. In a federal form pf government the independence availed by the state is at a lower level as such it is very important and convenient for commonwealth to grow thereby. There remains no hassle to go for longer procedures as it is the target of the commonwealth nation to give the dominance to the socially well fare beings. As stated y D.Uren sovereignty and federalism are the integral to each other the dominance of sovereignty can be gained only if there is enough space for federalism to grow. The commonwealth are performing much better than the state as such it is a vital contribution towards the welfare state. The commonwealth can only stand firm in the time of any kind of global crises and thus its adoption is very important for a nation. In a well dominated social structure the power of federalism can bestow enough space for social welfare. This is the reason that it has become an integral part and a compulsion for the political structure of many states. In order to avail absolute independence D. Uren too forwards certain points. As for him it is very important to check the national criteria of the state before declaring its power and should therefore go for a federal form of governance. As against a unitary form of government it is more comfortable for federal form to retain independence sustainability towards being a well fare state and declare the dominance of the state. References Baldacchino, Godfrey; Milne, David (September 2006). "Exploring sub-national island jurisdictions: An editorial introduction". The Round Table 95 (386): pp. 487–502. Commonwealth membership in focus at London meeting. Commonwealth Secretariat (6 December 2006). Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. Commonwealth Secretariat. [Retrieved on 12.06.08] Constitutional Topic: Federalism. The U.S. Constitution Online. [Retrieved on 12.06.08 ] http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_fedr.html de Smith, S.A. (July 1949). "The London Declaration of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers, April 28, 1949". The Modern Law Review 12 (3): pp. 351-4 Harare Commonwealth Declaration. Commonwealth Secretariat (20 October 1991). Rwanda’s bid to join Club to be considered at 2009 meet. The EastAfrican (20 November 2007). [Retrieved on 12.06.08 ] Velde-Ashworth, Victoria (10 October 2005). The future of the modern Commonwealth: Widening vs. deepening? (PDF). Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit. Retrieved on 2007-07-29. Williams, Paul D. (July 2005). "Blair's Britain and the Commonwealth". The Round Table 94 (380): pp. 381–391. UK Politics: Talking Politics The West Lothian Question]. BBC News (1998-06-01). [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/talking_politics/82358.stm [Retrieved on 12.06.08] Read More