Three Systems of Government

An important question about government is: What shall be the relationship between the national government and local governments? A nation of any size may be divided into many regions that are known by different names: provinces, states, territories, counties, districts, townships, and municipalities. Should each local unit have the power to make its own laws? Or should the lawmaking power belong only to the national government?

There are three possible answers to this question:

  • The unitary government answer. A strong national government has tight control over all local areas.

An Asian nation in the 1980s, Bangladesh, provides an interesting example of a unitary government. Bangladesh is located on India’s eastern border. In area, it is a small country crowded with more than 100 million people - most of them terribly poor. A dictator ruled the nation from the capital city of Dacca.

One of this dictator's problems was how to control Bangladesh's 68,385 villages. He decided in 1980 that all villages should be supervised by a group of officials called a Gram Sarkar. Thousands of Gram Sarkars were created, one for every five or six villages. Each consisted of 12 people whose loyalty to the dictator could be relied on. The main duty of each Gram Sarkar was to maintain law and order and to arrest "disloyal" villagers.

Bangladesh was a unitary state because all local regions took orders from the nation's capital. The Gram Sarkars enforced the policies and laws of the dictator. They were not free to make important decisions of their own.

  • The confederate government answer. Local governments have far more power than the weak national government.

For an example of the confederate form - or confederacy-we can look at the states of the American South over 140 years ago. In 1861, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and eight other states decided to withdraw (or secede) from the United States.

They said that they had created a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Elected representatives from each state met in the Confederacy's capital, Richmond, Virginia.

But this national government had few powers compared to the powers of each of the eleven Confederate states. It had great difficulty collecting taxes and resorted to issuing paper money

that became nearly worthless. Lawmakers elected by Georgia's citizens met in the state capital of Milledgeville. Their laws were more important to Georgians than the national laws passed in the Confederate capital. The same was true of Louisiana's state government in Baton Rouge, of Texas's government in Austin, and of Florida's government in Tallahassee.

For about four years (1861-1865), each of the Southern states had something cal1edautonomy. Autonomy means a great deal of freedom from outside control. Soon, however, Southerners lost their autonomy in the American Civil War. By 1865, Northern armies had defeated the South and brought the Confederate experiment to an end.

  • The federalist government answer. Both the national government and local governments have power to make important laws.

A third system for dividing power is the one used in the United States. Fifty states are included within our nation. Each state makes laws for the citizens within its borders. At the same time, the national government in Washington, D.C. makes laws for all the people of the United States. Each citizen must obey the laws written by the national government and the laws written by the state government. Some laws change as one moves from state to state.

Adapted from Jantzen, Government for Everybody, pages 51-53.