Global Times and federal concerns
Author: Amna Mirza
Publisher: Vl Media, Rs 400
The book deals with federal actors and their challenges in the era of globalisation, says PANKAJ JHA
The book, Global Times and Federal Concerns: Insights from Indian and American Case, written by Amna Mirza, tries to study the idea of federalism in the United States and India. The author’s understanding of federalism is drawn from various theorists, which can be largely understood as a method of dividing powers between the Union and State governments. The American and Indian models enshrine a different scheme of constitutional governance. Since the two models are not quite similar, Mirza opines that there can be established generalisations.
We cannot separate a system from its external environment. This places the onus on identifying the context of study within which the systems interact; the book tries to place the idea of federalism as a process in the era of globalisation. Rise in flow of goods, services, and movement of ideas, information, images and people have led to globalisation. This, in turn, has led to major reconfiguration of geography with space-time compression, diluting the distinction between domestic-international borders. The book attempts to understand how globalisation has produced new strains as far as the federal division of power is concerned.
Further in terms of contextual reality, the United States being a developed nation globalises more than it is globalised, whereas India being a developing nation is a recipient of globalisation. The traditional conception of the nation-state is being challenged by supranational governance. The book underlines that this becomes peculiar in federal states with constitutionally-defined scheme of power. There is need for new ways of configuration, thus calling for a more dynamic understanding of domestic reality.
The book shows how globalisation has affected the power and ability of the national government to act and control. Federalism and multilateral governance have important linkages. The has led to changes in a federal model in terms of moving away from single actor in decision-making along-with balancing unity and diversity.
The policy prescription of the book revolves around the idea that in order to deepen the base of democracy and globalisation, federal actors have to work out a mechanism to enhance the ways and means of state participation, consultation and negotiations even in foreign affairs, particularly when the decision has a bearing upon them.