Dramatic changes have taken place in the Indian Political scene during the last few years. Not only large number of regional political parties have formed governments in different states, but the Centre also witnessed the formation of coalition governments in 1996, 1998 and 1999. All this has given rise to doubts whether the Parliamentary System of government provided under the Constitution shall be able to copy with the new challenges. No wonder, a demand has been made in certain quarters for replacement of Parliamentary Government by a Presidential System. Further, these changes have also imparted a new meaning to the Federal System in which the various regional parties are playing a key role. All these dimensions have been kept in mind while revising the book. Several chapters have been recast and revised in the light of the latest changes. I am sure, the revised edition of the book would be found very useful by the students, teachers as well as the general readers. I am grateful to all esteemed readers and friends for their useful suggestions which helped me to improve the book. My special thanks are due to Dr. K. K. Wadhwa, Reader in Political Science for the pains taken by him to clarify several vague points. Long discussions with Dr. Wadhwa helped me to clear several doubts and rendered my job of revision of book easy. In the end I must also express my thanks to the Publishers for bringing out the revised edition of this book with remarkable speed.

This book is for the Political Theory course in undergraduate and postgraduate Political Science programs, and is also widely used for competitive exams.