A Comparison of Unitary and Federal Government Systems
A unitary state is a country that governed as a single entity with one national constitution. In these countries, the power of the government is delegated to regional assemblies. The central government maintains the right to delegate and recall these powers. Unitary states are not allowed to pass laws, and the central government has the power of decision making over the unitary government. This unitary government is just administrative arms of the national government. In a federal government, there are several hierarchies, with both state and central government being sovereign. The state and the central arms of government form federal government or confederation government. The objective of this essay is to compare these two types government systems.
Confederation Vs. Federal Government
In confederation government, the state overrules the central government while in the federal government, the opposite is true. In the federal governmental system, the provinces that form the federation are in the constitution and cannot be changed by the national government. The constitution defines the duties, privileges, and rights of a particular level of government. It also allocates the amount of power to be shared between the local government, national and the state. Citizens or government representatives must be involved in amending the constitution (Bose, DiIulio, Wilson, " Levendusky, 2018). The government can be classified as either federal or unitary. In the federal government, the governments’ power is distributed between the units and the center while in unitary government, the ruling powers are possessed by the central government.
Unitary Government: Centralized Power
In the unitary form of government, there is only single citizenship, same code of law, governor's role, and suspension of state governments during an emergency. In deliberation of power under unitary government, the government delegates specific powers and responsibilities to its units (Bose et al., 2018). A unitary government is divided into simplified units for administrative purposes, but the units are not in the constitution they are for administrative functions. Power is in the center, and the units are subordinate. The units in a unitary state are not independent and are not autonomous and can be withdrawn at any time by the central government since they have no constitutional status. England is an example of a unitary state. The unitary state has one supreme judiciary, one supreme legislature, and one executive body. England also has a single parliament, single executive body and single supreme judiciary. A unitary state may have a constitution or not. A good comparison is France which has a constitution while England does not (Bose et al., 2018). The constitution may be flexible or not depending on the preference of the state. Unitary governments usually have a judiciary with no extraordinary powers that cannot pass judgment over a bill passed by parliament.
Federal Government: Power Distribution
Federal form of government has a written constitution and delegation of power between states and center. This delegation can be part of the constitution defining the amount of power allocated to the state. The remaining power belongs to the central government and is known as residual power. Besides, it has more citizenships and a supreme judiciary. In a confederation kind of government, the states and the federal governments are independent. The federal government has a written, and rigid constitution and its judiciaries have unique and extraordinary powers (Bose et al., 2018).
Cultural, Topographic, and Economic Factors
The two forms of government depend on the military power, economic status, culture and demographics of the country. In my opinion, the federal form of government is the best in countries that major on culture, topographic, and economic matters while the unitary form of government is best during war or anarchy.
References
Wilson, J. Q., DiIulio Jr, J. J., Bose, M., " Levendusky, M. S. (2018). American Government: Institutions and Policies. Boston: Cengage Learning.
