Central government
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A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or delegated to it by the federation and mutually agreed upon by each of the federated states.
The structure of central governments varies. Many countries have created autonomous regions by delegating powers from the central government to governments on a sub-national level, such as regional, state, provincial, local and other instances. Based on a broad definition of a basic political system, there are two or more levels of government that exist within an established territory and government through common institutions with overlapping or shared powers as prescribed by a constitution or other law.
Common responsibilities of this level of government which are not granted to lower levels are maintaining national security and exercising international diplomacy, including the right to sign binding treaties. Essentially, the central government has the power to make laws for the whole country, in contrast with local governments.
The difference between a central government and a federal government is that the autonomous status of self-governing regions exists by the sufferance of the central government and are often created through a process of
Examples
Unitary states
There are, and have been, many countries which have delegated powers, some include:
- Bangladesh
- People's Republic of China – see autonomous administrative divisions of China
- Denmark – see the autonomous regions of the Faroe Islands and Greenland
- France
- Finland – devolved powers to governments of Åland.
- Republic of China
- Georgia – see autonomous republics
- Japan
- Norway
- New Zealand
- Republic of Korea
- Italy – see autonomous province of Italy
- Indonesia
- Spain – see autonomous communities
- Philippines - see Provinces of the Philippines
- autonomous regions of Portugal
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom – devolved powers to governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Vietnam
Federations
A federal government is the common or national government of a
Other states followed suit in establishing federal governments: Switzerland (1848); Canada (1867); Germany (1871 and again 1949); Brazil (1891); Australia (1901); Russia (1917); Austria (1920 and again 1945) and India (1947 and again 1950).[1] Examples include:
- Austria
- Argentina
- Australia – states and territories of Australia
- communities, regions and language areas of Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada – see provinces and territories of Canada
- Germany – see states of Germany
- Malaysia
- states of Mexico
- Nigeria
- Nepal
- Pakistan – see administrative units of Pakistan
- Russia – see federal districts of Russia, federal subjects of Russia
- Soviet Union – see republics of the Soviet Union
- independent
- Switzerland – cantons of Switzerland
- United States – see U.S. states
- Venezuela – see states of Venezuela
Confederations
See also
- National Government (disambiguation)
- List of autonomous areas by country
- Autonomous government
- Devolution of powers
- Federation
References
- ^ Watts, R., "Comparing Federal Systems" (2nd ed.) SPC Queen's U (1999) pp 20–26.