Abstract
This chapter deals with the theoretical issues in the current discourse in comparative federalism with special reference to how asymmetric federalism in India at both the state and sub-state levels contain significance beyond the conventional federal discourse, and their location in the so-called ‘politics of recognition’ in the current liberal discourse. This chapter offers a precise critical summary of the current debates in comparative federalism covering the West (global North), post-colonial, post-Soviet and post-transitions countries, and highlights the specific issues that are emerging in the domain of comparative federalism not conventionally treated as such. It also points our attention to why federal institutions, especially those imposed by the West on non-Western contexts, have failed, and why they have been successful—the failure being rooted in the incongruence between the indigenous social and cultural contexts, on the one hand, and the external character of political institutions so prescribed.
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Bhattacharyya, H. (2023). Concept of Asymmetric Federalism and the Politics of Recognition. In: Asymmetric Federalism in India. Federalism and Internal Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23727-0_2
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