Autonomous communities of Spain: Encyclopedia - Autonomous communities of Spain

Autonomous communities of Spain

Spain's fifty provinces (provincias) are grouped into seventeen autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas), in addition to two African autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas) (Ceuta and Melilla).

Autonomous communities of Spain - Formation and powers

Centralism, nationalism and separatism played an important role in the Spanish transition. For fear that separatism would lead to instability and a dictatorial backlash, a compromise was struck among the moderate political parties taking part in the drafting of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The aim was to appease separatist forces and so disarm the extreme right. A highly decentralized state was established, compared both with the previous Francoist regime and with most modern territorial arrangements in Western European nations.

The autonomous communities have wide legislative and executive autonomy, with their own parliaments and regional governments.

The Crown - Head of State

Cortes Generales - Legislative branch
   Congress of Deputies
   Senate
   Regional legislatures
Political parties in Spain
Elections in Spain:
1977 - 1979 - 1982 - 1986
1989 - 1993 - 1996 - 2000
2004

Government - Executive branch
   President of the Government
   Council of Ministers
   Regional governments

Judicial system - Judicial branch
   General Council of the Judicial Power
   Constitutional Court
   Supreme Court
   Regional high courts

Constitution
   1977 Political Reform Act
   1978 Constitution
   Amendments
Autonomous communities
Madrid (capital city)

^edit

The distribution of competences is different for every community, collected in the "autonomy statute" (estatuto de autonomía). There is a de facto distinction between "historic" communities (Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, and Andalusia) and the rest. The historic ones initially received more functions, including the ability of the regional presidents to choose the timing of the regional elections (as long as they happen at most 4 years apart). As another example, the Basque Country and Catalonia have full-range police forces of their own: Ertzaintza in the Basque Country and Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia. Other communities have a limited-bailiwick one or none at all.

The Constitution recognizes the historical rights of regions in general terms. This is a reference to the special status of certain regions with respect to the whole as a result of past agreements between the central government and the region, some times centuries ago. It is understood that those rights need to be actualized through the estatuto de autonomía. This explains why the Basque Country and Navarre collect taxes and negotiate with the Spanish government on how much they must contribute to the state's treasury while the rest receive allocations according to the "transferred" government functions.

The initial intent was not that every part of Spain should become part of an autonomous community, but that only the "historic" communities would be created. However, shortly after the Constitution was approved, a wave of creation of autonomous communities ensued. This was dubbed café para todos ("coffee for everybody") by critics of the decentralization.

There has been a tendency for "slow-track" communities to aspire to the function range of their elders. Even in communities without a separatist tradition, the local branches of parties fight for more power and budgets. Current points of disagreement are tax collection and representation at institutions of the European Union.

The Spanish Constitution of 1931 gave autonomy to Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, but the Spanish civil war crushed this experiment.

Autonomous communities of Spain - List

Here is a list of the communities and provinces.

Navarra
Ba. Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea

See also:

• List of Spanish autonomous communities by area
• List of Spanish autonomous communities by population
• List of ISO 3166 codes for Spanish autonomous communities and provinces

The map is stable, though some minorities claim separate communities for León, Orihuela and Álava. Also, there is an enclave of Burgos (Castilla y León) inside Álava (País Vasco), called Condado de Treviño where some inhabitants would like to leave Burgos and join Álava.

Autonomous communities of Spain - Plazas de soberanía

There are five "places of sovereignty" (plazas de soberanía) near Morocco, under direct Spanish administration:

• Ceuta and Melilla have a status between plain cities (they can produce regulations to execute Acts, with higher regulation competencies than normal city councils) and autonomous communities (these cities cannot produce autonomous Acts).
• Islas Chafarinas,
• Peñón de Alhucemas,
• and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

See also

• Flags of the autonomous communities of Spain
• Catalan constitutions

Autonomous communities of Spain - External link

• Spanish autonomous communities (Rulers.org)
• Airports In Spain

Categories: Lists of subnational entities | Geography of Spain | Autonomous communities of Spain | Subdivisions of Spain

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Autonomous communities of Spain", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki