Important Terms

Jurisdiction: The area over which someone has legal authority. The area may be defined in terms of geographical boundaries or in terms of subject

Coalition government: A government formed by coming together of at least two political parties

Tier system: It is the system which signifies levels of government. It may be two levels or two tiers and three levels or three tiers.

Coming together federation: It is a type of federation in which independent states come together on their own to form a bigger unit, so that by pooling, sovereignty and retaining identity they can increase this security.

Holding together federation: It is such a federation in which a large country decides to divide its power between the Constituent States and the National Government.

List system: Its states the distribution of powers or subjects through the list like Union List for central/Union level, state list for state level, etc. It is specific feature of Indian federalism.

Residuary subjects: They are the left over subjects which do not fall in any one of the three list. On the residuary subjects only the Union Government can legislate example: computer, software and internet.

Linguistic state: The creation of states on the basis of languages is known as linguistic state. Linguistic state recognizes differences based on culture, ethnicity or geography.

Scheduled language: Languages which are listed in the list of schedule of the constitution of India are known as the scheduled languages.

Non schedule languages: Apart from schedule languages, the languages which are not listed in the schedule of the constitution are known as the non schedule languages.

Decentralization: When power is taken away from central and state governments and given to local government, it is called decentralization. This concept helps to inculcate a habit and culture of democratic participation at the Grass root level.

Unitary System: “Unitary System” is a system of government in which either there is only one level of government or sub units are subordinate to the central government.

Union List: It is the list given under the jurisdiction of Union government. It includes the subjects or matters of national importance like defence, finance, external affairs, currency, etc. Union government alone can make laws on the Union government alone can make laws on the Union List subjects.

State List: “State List” is given under the jurisdiction of State Government. It includes the subjects or matters of state and local importance. State Government alone can make laws on the state list subjects.