Autonomy, Subnational

Subnational Autonomy and the Structure of the State

Because nation-states vary in their structure, sub-national governments also differ from country to country. In many cases, vast differences are found within a single country. This diversity results in a strong asymmetry between subnational governments in terms of their autonomy. The autonomy of subnational governments is based on several factors, including the institutional setting of a nation-state and the constitutional powers devoted to a subnational government. The more a country is constitutionally decentralized, the greater is the extent to which subnational governments have legislative powers and thus autonomy.

In unitary states such as Denmark or Israel, subnational governments have little or no autonomy. A unitary state is a state governed as one single unit in which the central government is the decision center. Subnational and local governments exercise only the power that the central governments choose to delegate.

In the case of a devolved or decentralized state, subnational governments have more autonomy. A decentralized state is generally a former unitary state such as France. The authority and responsibility for some public functions have been transferred from the central government to the regional government. A devolved state is a centralized state such as the United Kingdom (UK), where subnational governments have a degree of autonomous power devolved from the central government. A devolved government cannot challenge the constitutionality of central government's law. The power given by the central government can be revoked or reduced. For example, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended many times by London since its creation. In theory, decentralized and devolved states are different, but in practice, the differences are very thin.

A federal state is a type of sovereign state in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central government and the subnational governments (e.g., the Canadian provinces or the German Länder). To qualify as a federation, a minimum requirement is that the constitutional powers of the subnational governments cannot be changed unilaterally by the central government. In federal systems such as Germany, Canada, the United States, or Belgium, subnational governments have considerable autonomy. In Canada, for example, provinces are constitutionally responsible for health care, education, culture, and municipalities. They can also act on economic development, justice, environment, and so on. In Belgium, the autonomy of communities and regions goes even further. Since 1993, Belgium has been, according to the first article of its Constitution, “a federal state composed of communities and regions.” The constitutional revision of 1993 permits the regions and communities to become real international actors. This includes the power of representation and power to sign treaties with sovereign states. Since the revision of the Constitution in 1993, the organization of Belgium's international relations is fundamentally adapted to the federal state structure. The autonomy of the Belgian substate actors, with regard to external policy, is unique in the world. Its exceptional nature arises from the recognized constitutional principle of in foro interno, in foro externo. On top of that, there is an absence of hierarchy between different levels of administration (see Table 1).

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