It is often mentioned in academic debate that countries like lndia I and the United States are very centralised fedederations at least in comparison with countries like Canada and Switzerland, which are seen as decentralised But this terminology is confusing The idea of a federal structure is that power has been moved away froom the centre to districts and stases So how can a nation be federal and cen-trlised at the same time There are many answers to this question but for the purposes of this book whose mani objective is to look at effects of decentralisation in particular in lndia we will try to define more precisely the concept and its relationship with federalism This process should give us a set of analytical tools for the empirical study in Madhya pradesh and Kerala But this is best done by adopting a broader perspectivi To understand some of the core aspects of de-centralisation and federalism we will quote certain historical examples which should eventually make it easier for us to say what exactly is worth studying more closely and what can be expected from decentral-isation reforms
Without doubt decentralisation has been on the political agenda for as long as humans have organised themselves into sicieties of any complexity The need to delegate or move political and administrative power has presented itself as logical for practical reasons or as an out-come of both power struggles and ideological concerns How much