UBA KENNEDY C. IMSU OWERRI 2008/2009/ICEP Main differences between unitary, confederal, and federal governments?

Confederal, federal, and unitary governments are the three labels used to describe the relationship between a countrywide (national) government and more numerous regional (or state) governments. In a confederal system, power is extremely diffuse -- there is little central political control. Regional governments (such as states) can set fiscal and trade policy (e.g., set tariffs and taxes) and the like. The states might adopt a common currency in a confederation to ease interstate trade. The states also levy their own militias, although they cannot wage war independently. In a confederacy (or confederation), the role of anational government is primarily one of foreign policy, providing a collective front to increase the bargaining power of the states. For example, Rhode Island by itself might not be able to get a beneficial trade agreement with France, but working in concert with the other states, it can get a better deal, since the confederation as a whole is a larger player. Confederal governments can affect some aspects of internal policy as it relates to trade between the states, and other areas of interstate interaction, but the bulk of power is devolved -- that is, the legislature of any one state can set its own laws independently of any other state. Also, the states collectively decide national policy (in the USA's confederal era, each state had one member in the confederal legislature who voted on behalf of the state's interest). Confederal systems are rare. The USA was a confederation until the adoption of the Constitution. The CSA (the South) was a confederation in the Civil War, although its confederal government consistently sought increased control over policies). Germany was a confederation before it adopted a federal system (many nations undergo this transformation). The Commonwealth of Independent States (11 members of the former Soviet Union) is sometimes judged to be a weak confederation. The second option, more centralized than the first, is the federal system. In a federal system, the central (or federal) government has much more authority than in a confederal system. The central government controls more trade policy, and makes decisions about policy areas that involve interactions between states (such as highway systems). It usually has the power to tax independently of the states and to control the money supply. A federal government also usually has its own mechanisms for enforcement. For example, in the USA, the FBI is the primary agency for investigating federal crimes and crimes that occur between or among multiple states. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have a similar function in Canada. States (or provinces or regions) still set a great deal of policy and law on their own in

federal systems, but these policy areas are somewhat more restricted, and the federal government has its own areas of policy in which states cannot intrude. In a federal system, federal laws usually trump state laws when the two are in conflict. For example, a number of states had laws against homosexual acts, but once the United State Supreme Court (a part of the federal government) ruled that such laws violated an assumed right to privacy in the US (federal) Constitution, the state laws became invalid, because they ran afoul of federal protections of citizens. The same thing occurred when civil rights legislation was passed by the Congress, which overruled "Jim Crow" laws in the South. So, some areas of policy are under the sole control of the federal government, some areas are under the control of state governments (state transportation, health/welfare services, criminal law), and some areas overlap. In the US federal system, a state can give its citizens more rights than are guaranteed by the US Constitution, but it never give fewer rights than the that document promises. Federal systems (or federations) are more common than confederal governments today. The USA is federal, as is Canada. Germany is federal, and Russia is a rather centralized federation. Federal systems differ in how much power they give to the federal, as opposed to the regional, governments, but they are all alike in that some powers are reserved to each level of government in a balancing act. The third system is unitary. In a unitary government, power is almost entirely centralized in a national government. Power devolves to local governments only for the sake of convenience (such as garbage collection times or issuing parking tickets). Any local governments that exist hold power only with permission from the national government, and they cannot ever conflict with national policy. Thus, in the UK, the counties into which England is divided have their own bureaucracies and regulations, but only in areas where the national Parliament has given them permission to set up those systems. In smaller countries, there may be no regional governments at all; instead, there would a national government, and the next level would be local councils, who could set city policies, but only if those policies never conflicted with existing national law. Unlike a federal system, there are no reserved powers for states or provinces: local power may be granted by the national legislature, but it can be modified or revoked. Unitary nation-states might set up regional governments, but only to handle regulations that might be too burdensome to control entirely from a nationwide bureaucracy. Unitary governments are relatively common. Most European countries are unitary, including the United Kingdom (although that country has devolved some specific powers to local goverments in Scotland and Wales). Unitary government is especially common in smaller states, but the most populous country in the world, China, is also a unitary government. So, a quick summary. A confederation sets up the minimum limits of a nation-state: it defines a border, it sets rules for passage through the territory within that border, and it sets foreign policy of treaties, war, and peace. A federal system expands on this, giving the national goverment more power to regulate internal affairs that cross state boundaries, and setting minimum guidelines for how government operates within and among the states. A unitary government takes the principle of centralization even

further, and either eliminates regional governments completely, or restricts them to an administrative role that is subject to control from the national government at any time. Source(s): Political scientist