Page 11 - 08_Social_Studies and Population Education Book 8_2078 Revised and Updated Edition

Lesson

2 FEDERAL STATE

Introduction

Nepal had been practicing unitary system of government for a long decade.
Under unitary system, efforts had been made for balanced and proportional

development. But it failed to meet people’s expectation. Therefore, federalism
was raised as a political agenda against unitary system after the success of
People’s Movement-II, 2062/063. Federalism was endorsed by the second
amendment of the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063. The first meeting of the
Constituent Assembly-I, which was held on 15 Jestha 2065 declared Nepal as
th
“Federal Democratic Republican State”.

Federal system is a political system in which a country is divided into different
states or provinces with autonomous power. Every province has separate

government along with its federal government at centre. Under federal system,
there are three administrative units i.e. Central unit, Provincial unit and Local
unit. The Central and Provincial unit has their own legislative, executive, and
judicial bodies. Federalism is a principle which is similar throughout the world

but its practice may differ according to the necessity of the country. The division
of power between the federal and the state government is determined according
to the clauses mentioned in the constitution.

The Constitution of Nepal, has divided Nepal into 7 provinces and distributed

the state power to central, provincial and local units. Some of them are presented
below:

Federal Powers Provincial Powers Powers of Local Level
Protection of national State civil service Municipal police
unity and territorial and other Cooperatives
integrity government FM operation

Relating to national services Local development
security projects and programs

SOCIAL STUDIES - GRADE 8 11