There is a lot of confusion between the exact words. There is a lot of misconception among the group of people that the federal and national governments are quite similar as they both perform the same function.
Key Takeaways
- The federal government operates in a system where power is divided between central and regional authorities.
- National government encompasses all levels of government in a country, including federal, state, and local.
- Federal systems promote power distribution and protect regional interests, whereas national government seeks to unify and govern an entire nation.
Federal Government vs National Government
Federal governments divide power between regional and central governments. There are separate responsibilities for the central government and local governments in this system. In the National Government, power is centralized and it has control over the entire nation with no local government.
Federal is defined as something related to a government that joins a general government with the regional government in one political system.
A national government maintains the national army of the country. It has the strength to control over state or maintain foreign policy and has the power to collect taxes from the people.
Comparison Table
| Parameter of Comparison | Federal Government | National Government |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | It is defined as a system with some features of the central government and some state government features. | It is a government authority that has power over the whole nation. |
| Division | In the federal government, work is split up between the local and state government. | The national government gives orders to the local and state government. |
| Control | In the federal government, state and local governments can work freely. | The central or national government has full control of the nation. |
| Power | The federal government divides power among the local and state governments. | The central government has the full power to change the law, collect taxes, declare war, and many other powers. |
| Judiciary | The federal government cannot change the law of the country. | The national government can change the law or can declare any law invalid. |
What is the Federal Government?
A federal government is defined as a government system that has the features of the central government and some features of state governments or units. The federal government shares power with the national government; both governments can do their work freely.
It is a system of splitting up the power between the local and central governments, which is connected directly to the national government.
It is a systematic body with a specific constitution in which area of public life the national government control and which area of public life the state government will take over.
The rules and regulations made by the federal system of the country set up the limit for the national government to several areas such as providing money for defence, collecting taxes, regulating commerce, creating the currency of the country, building post offices and post roads, granting patents, creating of lower courts in the country, borrowing money on credit and declaring war.
What is the National Government?
The national government can also be called the central government of a country. Powerful and influential people who participate in a state’s governance, such as the monarch of England, the prime minister, the president, or maybe the country’s vice-president, form part of the national government. This government concerns with the issues of jurisdiction of the whole country.
The national government’s laws cannot be repealed unless the national law former called the law invalid and the law is carried out in the state or other forms of government.
The responsibility given to the national government, which is not provided to the state government or local government, is maintaining national security and the right to sign binding treaties exercising international diplomacy.
Main Differences Between Federal Government and National Government
- Both national and federal governments have the power to rule the country, but the national government is part of the federal government.
- The federal government split the power between the local and state governments. On the other hand, the national government has all the power to control the country, and both state and local governments have to follow the guidelines.
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/1119547
- https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/scr.1977.3109515
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