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' Federation'.Federalism (from the Latin fœdus, "covenant") is a system of government in which power is divided by constitutional right between national and local units of government in regions. A state that follows the federal system is known as a federation. Examples of federal systems include the governments of Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, the former Soviet Union, Switzerland, the United States of America, and the former Yugoslavia. Some countries, whilst not being formal federations, function like them - Spain, for instance, gives more powers to its autonomous communities than most federations to their constituent parts.
1 Comparison with Unitary systems
Unlike unitary systems, in which the powers of the local units of government are granted to them and can be varied or taken away by the national legislature, in a federal system the local units of government have their own independent constitutionally guaranteed authority. However they remain sub-units of one overall state, and thus do not have national sovereignty and have no standing under international law. In general, the local units of government cannot undertake an independent foreign policy, nor can they have standing armies without permission of federal government.
The distinction between unitary and federal governments is not always clear, as the national government in a formally unitary system of government may make large grants of power to local units resulting in a system that becomes de facto federal. An example of this is the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly. In theory, any of the regional devolved authorities created could be abolished, though politically that is exceptionally unlikely to happen (though in the UK, Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still did indeed abolish a number of well-established metropolitan councils, most notably the GLCGLC can also stand for the UK rap group named Goldie Lookin' Chain. The Greater London Council (GLC was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to its abolition in 1986. Prior to the GLC London had the Metropolitan B). This system of devolution that evolves into a form of de facto federalism can sometimes occur without formal legislation, as is the case with the People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China PRC comprises most of the cultural, historic, and geographic area known as China. Since its founding in 1949, it has been led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). It is the world's most populous country, with a population in which largely informal grants of power to the provinces to handle economic affairs and implement national policies has resulted in a system which some have termed "de facto federalism with Chinese characteristics." In strict constitutional terms, however, regional authorities which have no constitutional right to exist are referred to as devolved assemblies, while those that have a constitutionally guaranteed right to exist are federal authorities (often called states).
2 Division of power
Often, the division of power between federal and local governments is outlined in the national constitution, as is the case with the United States and Australia. It is also common for the regional governments, or at least some of them, to have existed longer than the national government and for the national government to have come into being as a result of a union of local governments. This was the case with the United States of America, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia. Indeed many 'states' within federal systems may themselves have their own constitutions.
The precise division of power varies from system to system. In the case of the United States, the Federal government has powers over areas enumerated in the United States constitution with the remaining powers belonging to the states. (In practice, the enumeration and the "remaining powers" are both fairly broad, and have been interpreted differently at different times.) In the case of Germany, the division is less one of content than of administration: the national government issues directives and the regional governments (Lander) have broad discretion as to how to implement them. In the People's Republic of China, the de facto federal situation is one in which the central government sets up general economic policy and goals, and leaves the implementation to provincial governments.
