optional · CSS study notes
Extra · Types of Government and Distribution of Authority
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Extra page — background only, not a syllabus item. Supports I.2 Role and Scope and Chapter II.10 (federal structure).
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Optional background — skim once (about 3 minutes). Not a syllabus item and no past-paper hit. Useful only for Pakistan-context answers on federalism, devolution and local government.
1. Classify one criterion at a time
- Territory: unitary (power concentrated nationally) · federal (constitution shares power between centre and units) · confederal (member states keep sovereignty).
- Executive and legislature: parliamentary (executive depends on legislative confidence) · presidential (separate mandates) · semi-presidential (president plus prime minister).
- Head of state: monarchy vs republic. Participation: democratic vs authoritarian.
- Pakistan = a federal parliamentary republic.
- Traps: federal does not mean fully decentralised; having a president does not make a system presidential.
2. Centralisation to devolution
- Delegation: a superior authorises a subordinate to decide specified matters.
- Deconcentration: work moves to field offices inside the same hierarchy.
- Devolution: law transfers powers to self-governing, usually elected, bodies.
- Three dimensions of decentralisation: political · administrative · fiscal. Elections alone do not give control over funds or staff.
- Subsidiarity: give a task to the lowest level that can do it well.
- Example: opening another provincial office = deconcentration; giving an elected council legal control of a service = devolution.
3. 🎯 CSS Exam Perspective
- How to score: name the classification criterion first, then place Pakistan on each axis separately.
- Common mistakes: treating "federal" and "presidential" as alternatives; equating deconcentration with devolution.
- Practice: Distinguish decentralisation, delegation and devolution with examples. → authority → finance → accountability → one example each.