Central government

Acentral governmentis thegovernmentthat is a controlling power over aunitary state.Another distinct but sovereign political entity is afederal government,which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or delegated to it by thefederationand mutually agreed upon by each of thefederated 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 aconstitutionor other law.

Common responsibilities of this level of government which are not granted to lower levels are maintainingnational securityand exercising internationaldiplomacy,including the right to sign bindingtreaties.Essentially, the central government has the power to make laws for the whole country, in contrast withlocal 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 ofdevolution.As such they may be unilaterally revoked with a simple change in the law. An example of this was done in 1973 when theNorthern Ireland Constitution Act 1973abolished thegovernment of Northern Irelandwhich had been created under theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920.It is common for a federal government to be brought into being by agreement between a number of formally independent states and therefore its powers to affect the status of the balance of powers is significantly smaller (as in theUnited States). Thus federal governments are often established voluntarily from 'below' whereas devolution grants self-government from above.

Examples[edit]

Unitary states[edit]

There are, and have been, many countries which have delegated powers, some include:

Bangladesh
People's Republic of China– seeautonomous administrative divisions of China
Denmark– see the autonomous regions of theFaroe IslandsandGreenland
France
Finland–devolvedpowers to governments ofÅland.
Republic of China
Georgia– seeautonomous republics
Japan
Norway
New Zealand
Republic of Korea
Italy– seeautonomous province of Italy
Indonesia
Spain– seeautonomous communities
Philippines- seeProvinces of the Philippines
Portugal– seeautonomous regions of Portugal
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom–devolvedpowers to governments ofScotland,WalesandNorthern Ireland.
Vietnam

Federations[edit]

A federal government is the common or national government of afederation.TheUnited Statesis considered the first modern federation. After declaring independence from Britain, the U.S. adopted its first constitution, theArticles of Confederationin 1781. This was the first step towards federalism by establishing the confederal Congress. However, Congress was limited as to its ability to pursue economic, military, and judiciary reform. In 1787, aConstitutional Conventiondrafted theUnited States Constitutionduring thePhiladelphia Convention.After the ratification of the Constitution by nine states in 1788, the U.S. was officially a federation, putting the U.S. in a unique position where the central government exists by the sufferance of the individual states rather than the reverse.

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) andIndia(1947 and again 1950).^[1]Examples include: