Introduction;

The term “federalism” describes a system of government in which sovereignty or power is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and provinces/constituent units. According to some scholars it is considered as a significant part of democracy. Jai Prakash Sharma writes in his book, “….Again, also there were Gandhians wedded to decentralization, who thought democracy and federalism (decentralization) as synonyms” (Sharma, 1987, 24). Similarly Katharine Adney quotes Daniel Elazar who argues that “federalism exists to promote democracy, and therefore the two cannot be separated” (Adney, 2009, 88). It is a recipe in heterogeneous societies to promote cooperation and agreement in the social, political, economic and administrative fields. Federalism maintains a balance of power between the two units; their powers do overlap or collide, rather the two works for the mutual benefit of each other. Looking at the historical account of federal states, one would come to know that federalism arose out of a mutual bargain between different states in order to defend the country from an enemy attack. However post-colonial nations decided to be a federal state not for such defense purposes, rather because of colonial legacies. Post-colonial states such as Pakistan are multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural societies, where federalism adopted as an alien system of governance produced ethnic conflicts and ethnic divisions.

Few consider federalism as a panacea for ethnic conflicts in heterogeneous societies, while other argue that it exacerbates ethno-linguistic conflicts within a province due to neglect of minorities (Unpublished,Khan,6). Due to less power given to central/national government, it may also lead to hindrance in nation building (Mengisteab, 1997, 114). One of the assumed advantages of federalism is “fiscal federalism theory” which states that this system of governance gives maximum financial autonomy to constituent units. Contrary to this theory, Wibbels mentions that federalism leads to difficulties for economic reforms in the developing countries (Wibbels, 2000, 687).

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Weber’s  mother was a Protestant and a Calvinist and her moral absolutist ideas influenced him a great deal in his writing. Since Weber was a liberal, he became vastly impressed by the System of American Democracy on his short trip to the United States in 1904.Thus,Politics also played a significant role in shaping up his ideas regarding Capitalism.

     

He wrote about Protestant ethic after recovering from a psychological depression that had kept him away from his writing  for four years. His prolonged illness helped him to develop great insights into the connection between Calvinism and compulsive labor and religious ethics and economic processes.

             

Weber studied society from the context of historical culture and was amongst the first people to study Marxism objectively.Hence, the influence of Marx in Weber’s writing is quite evident. Contrary to Marx’s views, Weber focused on the role of  religion in the economic structure of society. In this book he explains that the development of capitalism is influenced by Puritan ethics and he traces its origins to the Reformation which introduced the notion of calling. It says that the greatest moral duty of human beings is to full fill their obligations in this world.

 

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