CONSTITUTIONALISM IN INDIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

For genuine democracies, constitutions consist of overarching arrangements that determine the political, legal and social structures by which society is to be governed. Constitutional provisions are therefore considered to be paramount or fundamental law. Under these circumstances, if constitutional law itself is inadequate, the nature of democracy and rule of law within a country is affected. The structure of modern nations has been shaped with government being divided into executive, legislative and judicial bodies, with the commonly accepted notion that these bodies and their powers must be separated. In the U.S., the concept of constitutionalism and the written Constitution go hand in hand. Alexander Hamilton, a legal scholar and politician, called for a Constitutional Convention in 1786. In 1787, the Convention took place in Philadelphia with George Washington serving as the President of the same. While the initial purpose was to make changes to the Articles of Confederation, the discussions of the Convention shifted towards the creation of a new constitution. A federation is a state having one central (federal) government acting for the whole country and several state governments existing side by side having control over their areas. Both the governments exercise power over their definite sphere as provided in the Constitutions and does not interfere with each other’s functions. Thus in a federation, there is a division of powers between the central (federal) government and state government. Countries like USA, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, etc. have a federal form of government. The salient features of federalism include the existence of dual government at the central and state level, separation of powers, rigid and written constitution, supremacy of the constitution, independence of judiciary, etc. Current article trying a comparative study between Indian Constitutionalism with US.