Autonomous communities of Spain
The autonomous communities are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Spain.
There are 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities that are collectively known as "autonomies". The two autonomous cities have the right to become autonomous communities.
The autonomous communities exercise their right to self-government within the limits set forth in the constitution and organic laws known as Statutes of Autonomy, which broadly define the powers that they assume.
Each statute sets out the devolved powers for each community; typically those communities with stronger local nationalism have more powers, and this type of devolution has been called asymmetrical which is on the whole seen as advantageous, able to respond to diversity.
Despite the Constitution not setting a mandatory legislative chamber framework, all autonomous communities have chosen unicameralism. All such governments have legislative and executive branches of government but not judicial.
Decentralisation model
The Spanish model is generally considered by foreign political scientists and scholars as "a federal system with certain peculiarities". However it is also described as a decentralised unitary country. While sovereignty is vested in the nation as a whole, represented in the central institutions of government, the nation has, to varying degrees, devolved power to the communities.This unique framework of territorial administration has been labeled by the Constitutional Court as the "State of Autonomous Communities", to avoid implying either a unitary or federal model. Some scholars have referred to the resulting system as a federal system in all but name, or a "federation without federalism".
List of autonomous communities
The official names of the autonomous communities can be in Spanish only, in the co-official language in the community only, or in both Spanish and the co-official language. Since 2006, Occitan—in its Aranese dialect—is also a co-official language in Catalonia, making it the only autonomous community whose name has three official variants.RA: Regionally Appointed
''DE: Directly Elected''
Autonomous cities
''DE: Directly Elected''History
Background
Spain is a diverse country made up of several different regions with varying economic and social structures, as well as different languages and historical, political and cultural traditions. While the entire Spanish territory was united under one crown in 1479, this was not a process of national homogenization or amalgamation. The constituent territories—be they crowns, kingdoms, principalities or dominions—retained much of their former institutional existence, including limited legislative, judicial or fiscal autonomy. These territories also exhibited a variety of local customs, laws, languages and currencies until the mid 19th century.From the 18th century onwards, the Bourbon kings and the government tried to establish a more centralized regime. Leading figures of the Spanish Enlightenment advocated for the building of a Spanish nation beyond the internal territorial boundaries. This culminated in 1833, when Spain was divided into 49 provinces, which served mostly as transmission belts for policies developed in Madrid.
Spanish history since the late 19th century has been shaped by a dialectical struggle between Spanish nationalism and peripheral nationalisms, mostly in Catalonia and the Basque Country, and to a lesser degree in Galicia.
In a response to Catalan demands, limited autonomy was granted to the Commonwealth of Catalonia in 1914, only to be abolished in 1925. It was granted again in 1932 during the Second Spanish Republic, when the Generalitat, Catalonia's mediaeval institution of government, was restored. The constitution of 1931 envisaged a territorial division for all Spain in "autonomous regions", which was never fully attained—only Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia had approved "Statutes of Autonomy"—the process being thwarted by the Spanish Civil War that broke out in 1936, and the victory of the rebel Nationalist forces under Francisco Franco.
Franco's dictatorial regime strongly believed that the only way of preserving the "unity of the Spanish nation" was by ruling Spain as a highly centralized state. Peripheral nationalism, along with communism and atheism, were regarded by his regime as the main threats. His attempts to fight separatism with heavy-handed but sporadic repression, and his often severe suppression of language and regional identities backfired: the demands for democracy became intertwined with demands for the recognition of a pluralistic vision of Spanish nationhood.
When Franco died in 1975, Spain entered into a phase of transition to democracy. The most difficult task of the newly democratically elected Cortes Generales in 1977 acting as a Constituent Assembly was to transition from Franco's rigid centralism to a more decentralized model in a way that would satisfy the demands of the peripheral nationalists.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Adolfo Suárez, met with Josep Tarradellas, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia in exile. They agreed to restore the Generalitat and transfer limited powers while the constitution was still being written. Shortly after, the government allowed the creation of "assemblies of members of parliament" made up of deputies and senators of the different territories of Spain, so that they could constitute "pre-autonomic regimes" for their regions as well.
The Fathers of the Constitution had to strike a balance between the opposing views of Spain—on the one hand, the centralist view inherited from monarchist and nationalist elements of Spanish society, and on the other hand federalism and a pluralistic view of Spain as a "nation of nations"; between a uniform decentralization of entities with the same powers and an asymmetrical structure that would distinguish the nationalities. Peripheral nationalist parties wanted a multinational state with a federal or confederal model, whereas the governing Union of the Democratic Centre and the People's Alliance wanted minimum decentralization; the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party was sympathetic to a federal system.
In the end, the constitution, published and ratified in 1978, found a balance in recognizing the existence of "nationalities and regions" in Spain, within the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation". In order to manage the tensions present in the Spanish transition to democracy, the drafters of the current Spanish constitution avoided giving labels such as 'federal' to the territorial arrangements, while enshrining in the constitution the right to autonomy or self-government of the "nationalities and regions", through a process of asymmetric devolution of power to the "autonomous communities" that were to be created.
Constitution of 1978
The starting point in the territorial organization of Spain was the second article of the constitution, which reads:The constitution was rather ambiguous on how this was to take place. It does not define, detail, or impose the structure of the state; it does not tell the difference between "nation" and "nationality"; and it does not specify which are the "nationalities" and which are the "regions", or the territories they comprise. Rather than imposing, it enables a process towards a decentralized structure based on the exercise that these "nationalities and regions" would make of the right to self-government that they were granted. As such, the outcome of this exercise was not predictable and its construction was deliberately open-ended; the constitution only created a process for an eventual devolution, but it was voluntary in nature: the "nationalities and regions" themselves had the option of choosing to attain self-government or not.
In order to exercise this right, the constitution established an open process whereby the "nationalities and regions" could be constituted as "autonomous communities". Provinces would serve as the building blocks and constituent parts of the autonomous communities. The 50 provinces were a pre-existing territorial division of the liberal centralizing regime of the 19th century created for purely administrative purposes. The constitution stipulated that the following could be constituted as autonomous communities:
- Two or more adjacent provinces with common historical, cultural and economic characteristics
- Insular territories
- A single province with a "historical regional identity"
- authorize, in the nation's interest, the constitution of an autonomous community even if it was a single province without a historical regional identity ; and to
- authorize or grant autonomy to entities or territories that were not provinces.
While the constitution was still being drafted, and self-government seemed likely to be granted only to the "historical nationalities", there was a popular outcry in Andalusia, demanding self-government as well, which led to the creation of a quicker process for that region, which eventually self-identified as a "historical nationality" as well. In the end, the right to self-government was extended to any other region that wanted it.
The "slow route" or "slow track", also called the "norm", was established in Article 143. This route could be taken—via the first transitory disposition—by the "pre-autonomic regimes" that had been constituted in 1978, while the constitution was still being drafted, if approved by two-thirds of all municipalities involved whose population would sum up to at least the majority of the electoral census of each province or insular territory. These communities would assume limited powers during a provisional period of 5 years, after which they could assume further powers, upon negotiation with the central government. However, the constitution did not explicitly establish an institutional framework for these communities. They could have established a parliamentary system like the "historical nationalities", or they could have not assumed any legislative powers and simply established mechanisms for the administration of the powers they were granted.
The constitution also explicitly established that the institutional framework for these communities would be a parliamentary system, with a Legislative Assembly elected by universal suffrage, a cabinet or "council of government", a president of such a council, elected by the Assembly, and a High Court of Justice. They were also granted a maximum level of devolved powers.
While the constitution did not establish how many autonomous communities were to be created, on 31 July 1981, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, then the prime minister of Spain and Felipe González, leader of the opposition in Parliament, signed the "First Autonomic Pacts", in which they agreed to the creation of 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities, with the same institutions of government, but different competences. By 1983, all 17 autonomous communities were constituted: Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile and León, Castile–La Mancha, Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Navarra, the Region of Murcia and the Valencian Community. The two autonomous cities, Ceuta and Melilla were constituted in 1995.
Once the autonomous communities were created, Article 145 prohibits the "federation of autonomous communities". This was understood as any agreement between communities that would produce an alteration to the political and territorial equilibrium that would cause a confrontation between different blocks of communities, an action incompatible with the principle of solidarity and the unity of the nation.
The so-called "additional" and "transitory" dispositions of the constitution allowed for some exceptions to the above-mentioned framework. In terms of territorial organization, the fifth transitory disposition established that the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish exclaves located on the northern coast of Africa, could be constituted as "autonomous communities" if the absolute majority of the members of their city councils would agree on such a motion, and with the approval of the Spanish Parliament, which would exercise its prerogatives to grant autonomy to other entities besides provinces.
However one aspect of this asymmetry in powers between regions is a cause of friction, namely that the Basque Country and Navarre can raise their own taxes and negotiate a transfer to Madrid to pay for common services and hence, unlike the other regions, do not contribute to fiscal equalisation across Spain. These two regions or communities are known as "chartered" territories,
In all other communities, all taxes are levied and collected by or for the central government and then redistributed among all.