Federalism

1. State power has three main branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The legislature makes laws; the executive enforces the laws and governs the country; the judges decide disputes that come before them and in doing so interpret the law and apply it to the facts of the case they have to judge.

2. State power can also be divided upon a geographical basis. The system for doing this is called federalism. In a federal state there is a federal government, legislature and courts. There are also regional governments, legislatures and courts. Both may get their powers from a written constitution.Powers to make laws, to govern and to judge are each divided between the federal state and the regions. The regions go by different names in different countries (states, provinces, lands, cantons, republics).

3. One reason for dividing power in this way is that the country is too large to be governed conveniently from a single centre (the USA). Another is that its regions vary in language or culture (Switzerland, India, Canada). A third is that a central government might be too powerful if it was not balanced by regional governments with some independent powers (Germany, the USA).

4. In a typical federation defense and foreign policy belong to the federal government, education to the regions, and the power to tax is divided between the two. So the federation and the regions may both have power to make laws on similar subjects. Since each region has its own independent powers and courts, it has its own regional legal system, alongside the federal legal system. If the federation also separates the law-making, governing and judging functions the law becomes very complicated and expensive. But they allow a country to hold together when otherwise it would fall apart.

Определите, какое утверждение соответствует содержанию текста.

One of the reasons for dividing power on a geographical basis is that the regions of the country differ in language and culture.

The system of the separation of state power into the three branches – legislative, executive and judicial is known as federalism.

In a federal state regions usually have their own independent powers to solve the problems concerning defense and foreign policy.

Such powers as to make laws, to govern and to judge are only given to the federal state, while the regions are engaged in education and taxation.