38 International IDEA
Federalism
state governed by a dictator to participate fully as a member of an otherwise
democratic federation); and (b) the citizens of each constituent unit have certain
fundamental substantive and due-process rights that it is the duty of the federal
government to uphold, and the federal government could not uphold these rights
without having the power to intervene.
However, a federal power to intervene in the internal politics and
administration of constituent units could be abused
in order to undermine the
federal distribution of power. The governments of constituent units would have
real little autonomy if they were in peril of being dissolved or being stripped of
their powers, at any time, for any reason, by an arbitrary act of the federal
government.
One way of preventing abuse of the power to intervene
is to limit it in time
and to require explicit legislative approval. In India, a proclamation of ‘President’s
Rule’ in a state must be approved by the parliament within two months, and
thereafter at six-month intervals. In Brazil, the federal president has the authority
to ‘decree and enforce’ a federal intervention in a state (article 84), but the
Congress has the authority to ‘approve’ a federal intervention and to suspend it
(article 49). Additional safeguards in Brazil include the right of an advisory body
(the Council of the Republic) to give its opinion on federal interventions (article
90), the right of the president of the Senate to convene the Congress if a state of
federal intervention is in effect (article 57) and a prohibition
of constitutional
amendments during an intervention (article 60).
International IDEA 39
10. Possible alternatives to federalism
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