This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Unitary state is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (March 2008) |
A unitary state is a state whose three organs of state are governed constitutionally as one single unit, with one constitutionally created legislature. The political power of government in such states may well be transferred to lower levels, to national, regional or local elected assemblies, governors and mayors (devolved government), but the central government retains the principal right to recall such delegated power (e.g. the period when Farum Municipality was ruled by the Danish Government for a time, or the era of direct rule in Northern Ireland by the United Kingdom's central government in London from 1973 to 2007).
In a unitary state, any sub-governmental units can be created or abolished, and have their powers varied, by the central government. The process in which sub-government units and/or national or regional parliaments are created by a central government is known as devolution. A unitary state can broaden and narrow the functions of such devolved governments without formal agreement from the affected bodies. In federal systems, by contrast, assemblies in those states composing the federation have a constitutional existence and a set of constitutional functions which cannot be unilaterally changed by the central government. In some such cases, such as in the United States, it is the federal government that has only those powers expressly delegated to it.
Most federal states also have unitary lower levels of government. Thus while the United States itself is federal, the U.S. states are themselves unitary, with counties and other municipalities having only the authority given (devolved) to them by the state constitution or legislature.
The devolved powers and laws of the subnational entity may be overridden, or the entity's law-making power curtailed, by an ordinary law of the national government, or by a simple decision of the head of government. The United Kingdom is a good example of this: Scotland has a wide degree of autonomous law-making power, but there is no right for Scotland to challenge the constitutionality of UK national legislation, and laws of Scotland can be overridden, and the powers of the Scottish parliament revoked or reduced, by an act of the national parliament or a decision of the Prime Minister. In the case of Northern Ireland, the devolved powers of the region have been suspended by a simple government decision on several occasions. Thus, the UK is still a unitary state, despite superficially appearing somewhat like a federal state in practice.
Devolution (like federation) may be symmetrical (all regions having the same powers and status) or asymmetric (regions varying in their powers and status). UK devolution is asymmetric.
List of unitary states
See also
References
- Decentralizing the Civil Service: From Unitary State to Differentiated Polity in the United Kingdom
- Changing Patterns of Governance in the United Kingdom
- Open University - UK & Unitary state
- Open University - The UK model of devolution
- Open University - Devolution in Scotland
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 8 September 2008, at 03:13.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Unitary state".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.