Federation
In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision, neither by the component states nor the federal political body without constitutional amendment.
[1] Overriding powers of a central authority theoretically can include: the constitutional authority to suspend a constituent state's government by invoking gross mismanagement or civil unrest, or to adopt national legislation that overrides or infringes on the constituent states' powers by invoking the central government's constitutional authority to ensure "peace and good government"[citation needed] or to implement obligations contracted under an international treaty.
[2] Several ancient chiefdoms and kingdoms, such as the 4th-century-BCE League of Corinth, Noricum in Central Europe, and the Iroquois Confederacy in pre-Columbian North America, could be described as federations or confederations.
In some recent cases, federations have been instituted as a measure to handle ethnic conflict within a state, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq since 2005 as well as Somalia since 2012.
The component states of a federation usually possess no powers in relation to foreign policy and so enjoy no independent status under international law.
[8] A confederation is most likely to feature three differences when contrasted with a federation: (1) No real direct powers: many confederal decisions are externalized by member-state legislation; (2) Decisions on day-to-day-matters are not taken by simple majority but by special majorities or even by consensus or unanimity (veto for every member); (3) Changes of the constitution, usually a treaty, require unanimity.
However, Canadians, designed with a stronger central government than the US in the wake of the Civil War of the latter, use the term "Confederation" to refer to the formation or joining, not the structure, of Canada.
Legal reforms, court rulings, and political compromises have decentralized Canada in practice since its formation in 1867.
A federation differs from a devolved state, such as Indonesia and the United Kingdom, because, in a devolved state, the central government can revoke the independence of the subunits (the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly in the case of the United Kingdom) without changing the constitution.
A unitary state may closely resemble a federation in structure and, while a central government may possess the theoretical right to revoke the autonomy of a self-governing region, it may be politically difficult for it to do so in practice.
[15] For the Spanish parliament to revoke the autonomy of regions such as Galicia, Catalonia or the Basque Country would be a political near-impossibility, though nothing bars it legally.
[16] Additionally, some autonomies such as Navarre or the Basque Country have full control over taxation and spending, transferring a payment to the central government for the common services (military, foreign relations, macroeconomic policy).
For example, scholar Enrique Guillén López discusses the "federal nature of Spain's government (a trend that almost no one denies).
"[17] Each autonomous community is governed by a Statute of Autonomy (Estatuto de Autonomía) under the Spanish Constitution of 1978.
Although South Africa bears some elements of a federal system, such as the allocation of certain powers to provinces, some nevertheless argue that it is functionally a unitary state.
that is not unilaterally changeable or revocable by the central authority, South Africa does qualify, formally, as a federal state.
[citation needed] The EU is a three-pillar structure of the original supranational European Economic Community and the nuclear energy cooperation and non-proliferation treaty, Euratom, plus two largely intergovernmental pillars dealing with External Affairs and Justice and Home Affairs.
However, its central government is far weaker than that of most federations and the individual members are sovereign states under international law, so it is usually characterized as an unprecedented form of supra-national union.
[citation needed] By the signature of this Treaty, the participating Parties give proof of their determination to create the first supranational institution and that thus they are laying the true foundation of an organized Europe.
We profoundly hope that other nations will join us in our common endeavor.Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism.Those uncomfortable using the "F" word in the EU context should feel free to refer to it as a quasi-federal or federal-like system.
(See, for instance, Bednar, Filippov et al., McKay, Kelemen, Defigueido and Weingast)A more nuanced view has been given by the German Constitutional Court.
However, there have been certain largely informal grants of power to the provinces, to handle economic affairs and implement national policies, resulting in a system some have termed federalism "with Chinese characteristics".
Under the terms of the Fomboni Accords,[27] signed in December 2001 by the leaders of all three islands, the official name of the country was changed to the Union of the Comoros; the new state was to be highly decentralised and the central union government would devolve most powers to the new island governments, each led by a president.
One issue is that the exact division of power and responsibility between federal and regional governments is often a source of controversy.
Often, as is the case with the United States, such conflicts are resolved through the judicial system, which delimits the powers of federal and local governments.
On the other hand, incongruent federalism exists where different states or regions possess distinct ethnic groups.
Usual responsibilities of this level of government are maintaining national security and exercising international diplomacy, including the right to sign binding treaties.
