Coconstitutionalism

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Coconstitutionalism is where two institutional cultures exist in a complex semi-autonomous relationship to each other. [1] The model of asymmetrical devolution that has emerged in democratic Spain has been called "coconstitutional" in that it is neither a federal nor a unitary model of government: autonomous nation-regions exist alongside and within the Spanish nation-state in a relatively dynamic relationship. [2]

Similarities to federalism are marked although a key difference lies in the legal status of a federal-state versus a notionally unitary coconstitutional one: in a federation, it is the states who legally transfer powers to the federal government (bottom up) whereas in a unitary state power is devolved from the nation-state down to the regions (top down) and can in theory be revoked. But in the case of Spain any such move by a future Spanish government could rekindle the Spanish Civil War, the truth[ according to whom? ] is such a move would probably require a constitutional amendment. Certainly a statue of autonomy (Spanish, Estatuto de autonomía) cannot be abrogated nor modified save by an initiative of an autonomous regional Parliament—that being, of course, unlikely.[ citation needed ]

Since 1997, the UK government has pursued a similar coconstitutional model of devolution with regard to its nation-regions.

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A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create or abolish administrative divisions. Such units exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate. Although political power may be delegated through devolution to regional or local governments by statute, the central government may override the decisions of devolved governments, curtail their powers, or expand their powers. Unitary states in its modern concept originated in France, in the aftermath of the Hundred Years' War, national feeling that emerged from the war unified France. The Hundred Years' War accelerated the process of transforming France from a feudal monarchy to a unitary state. The French then later spread unitary states by conquests, throughout Europe during and after the Napoleonic Wars, and to the world through the vast French colonial empire.

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Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federalism in Spain</span> Political ideology

Federalism in Spain began in the 1830s, although it has its roots in the 1790s. The first and only attempt to establish a federal state in Spain occurred during the First Spanish Republic (1873-1874). After this failure, federalism was a minority political current. In the Second Spanish Republic and in the Transition, an intermediate model was chosen between federalism and centralism — the integral state, in the first case; and the regional state in the second.

References

  1. Jr, Anthony F. Lang; Wiener, Antje (2017-10-27). Handbook on Global Constitutionalism. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78347-735-7.
  2. Grimm, Dieter (2016-09-08). Constitutionalism: Past, Present, and Future. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-109095-0.