Unitary state
As a unitary state one is state designated where the state authority over the entire territory most of the capital from centralized exerted. The term central government is increasingly in use today . As a special form of the unitary state, the decentralized unitary state is sometimes mentioned , which has decentralized self-governing bodies such as districts or départements , but which are centrally supervised.
Unitary states are subdivided into administrative units , if necessary also into independent self-governing bodies , but not into separate states as in the federal state .
The striving for a unitary state is called unitarianism , while the striving for a federal order is called federalism .
Examples
As examples of democratic states the political scientist called Martin Sebaldt about Costa Rica , Finland , Iceland or Israel as a centralized unitary states . Denmark , France , the United Kingdom , Ireland , Japan or Luxembourg, as well as New Zealand , the Netherlands , Norway and Sweden , on the other hand, are decentralized unitary states .
A “pronounced regionalization ” can be found in Italy and India , which he describes as regional unitary states. Thus Italy gradually developed through state reforms into a regionalized unitary state in which five regions with special status have self-administration. This concept was expanded to the other regions in a modified way and anchored in constitutional law. India is only a “formal union”, since its federal states have no state quality due to the lack of constitutions. In addition, the central government could restructure and dissolve these on the basis of Articles 3 and 358 of the Federal Constitution and take over their governance. In addition, their governors would be appointed by the president and his duties would be regulated by the state constitution. Sebaldt regards Belgium as a special case , which although not “formal legal ”, has de facto changed from a decentralized unitary state to a federal state through several state reforms.
Individual evidence
- ^ Schubert, Klaus / Martina Klein: Das Politiklexikon. 4th, updated Ed., Dietz, Bonn 2006 ( online in the policy dictionary of the Federal Agency for Civic Education ).
- ↑ Unified State ( Memento of the original from January 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from Wissen.de, accessed on September 16, 2011
- ↑ Martin Sebaldt: The power of parliaments. Functions and performance profiles of national representative bodies in the old democracies of the world , VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 184 ff.
