4 Federal and Unitary Constitution

Unitary: sovereignty and law-making authority reside in one central legislature; sub-national units (if any) are creatures of the centre, exercisable powers delegated by statute and revocable — local government as administration, not constitution. Exemplars: UK, France, Japan. Merits: uniform law, clear accountability, no inter-level conflict, economy of institutions; suits small or homogeneous states. Demerits: remoteness from local diversity; winner-take-all concentration; limited laboratories of policy.Federal: a written constitution divides law-making power between a general (federal) government and regional (state/provincial) governments, each supreme within its sphere, neither able unilaterally to alter the division; a supreme court (typically) polices the division. Exemplars: USA, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, India. (Fuller treatment — structure, dual/two lists, features, merits/ demerits — in Unit 6; for classification purposes the key is the constitutional guarantee of regionalautonomy as the dividing line.)Nepal's journey — the classification's best Nepali story: Nepal was classically unitary from unification until 2015 (local decentralization under the Local Self-Governance Act 2055 (1999) delegated but did not divide power). The 2015 Constitution transformed Nepal into a federalstate: three levels — Federation, seven Provinces and 753 local governments — with powers divided by Schedules 5–9 (Unit 6), provincial consent protecting provincial boundaries and powersat amendment (Article 274(4)–(7)), and inter-level disputes resolved by the courts. A unitary state became federal by constituent decision — classification changed, and with it…