POL 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Canadian Federalism, Indirect Tax

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL 2101
• Professor: Luc Turgeon

Document Summary

Distinction between a unitary and a federal state: Unitary state: a system of governing in which sovereign authority rests with the central government, regional and local governments are subordinate. Federal state: a system of governing in which sovereign authority is divided or shared between the central government and regional governments, with each deriving its authority from the constitution. No hierarchy; federal and regional governments are equal. The constitution is the highest national power, the source of the power. Institutional aspects of federalism: the distribution of legislative and executive authority between two levels of government, supreme, written constitution, the presence of a judicial umpire (to mediate arguments of power between federal and regional governments) Salient differences that are organized and expressed largely on the basis of territory (linguistic, history, culture, economic) Citizens are members of both the national community, embodied in the national government, and of provincial communities, reflected in their provincial governments.