Abstract
Federalism is the most refined and effective state structure that most of the nation states in the modern
times have adopted for the working and functioning of the state machinery. Though, there is a space for debate that
which system, whether unitary or federal system is better because unitary form of government in some states is
equally producing good results and ensuring public goods however, most of the countries in the West have adopted
the federal structure for their states and they are producing better results and apparently their supremacy in the
world is connected with the success of their system. The founding father of Pakistan had adopted federalism as the
ultimate panacea of all the challenges confronting the regions. The concept of federation which was afoot after the
passage of Indian Act of 1935, has had been applied in Pakistan since 1947. The history had witnessed federal
structure, successfully or unsatisfactorily but it has been working since the birth of the country. In fact, the history of
federalism is the oldest one and therefore numerous thinkers and philosophers have written sufficiently about the
concept of the state, its structure and it’s functioning in various epochs of history. Therefore, it is of immense
importance to understand how and why the federalism emerged and what kind of functions it performed from
ancient city states of Greece to modern times and what the philosophers have spelled out about the better and
smooth functioning of the federal structure in modern times. However, an attempt is made to understand the
different theories about the federalism so that theoretical framework of the thesis can be built to prove the point
that, where there is mature and refined federal structure, the state machinery functions for the betterment of state
and society as the federating units take more duties to shoulder the responsibilities of the internal matters whereas
the external matters and key subjects remain in the domain of the federal government. The hypothesis of this paper
is, while keeping in view the success of the system of federalism at international democratic canvas, why it has not
been given its complete fruits in the chequered political environment of Pakistan while comparing other countries.
This research is to understand the various theories, that will enable us to understand and construct the history of
working of the federal structure of Pakistan and to explore how Federalism dealt with the problems of
marginalisation and widespread polarization in Pakistan.
Farzana Arshad. (2021) Federalism, Evolution Theory and Practice: The Pakistani Federal Canvas, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume-58, Issue-1.
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