Autonomous communities of Spain

Autonomous communities of Spain.

Spain

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Spain

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Spain's fifty provinces (provincias) are grouped into seventeen autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas), in addition to two African autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas) (Ceuta and Melilla).

Formation and powers

Centralism, nationalism and separatism played an important role in the Spanish transition. For fear that separatism would lead to instability and a dictatorial backlash, a compromise was struck among the moderate political parties taking part in the drafting of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The aim was to appease separatist forces and so disarm the extreme right. A highly decentralized state was established, compared both with the previous Francoist regime and with most modern territorial arrangements in Western European nations.

The autonomous communities have wide legislative and executive autonomy, with their own parliaments and regional governments.The distribution of powers is different for every community, as laid out in the "autonomy statute" (estatuto de autonomía). There is a de facto distinction between "historic" communities (Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, and Andalusia) and the rest. The historic ones initially received more functions, including the ability of the regional presidents to choose the timing of the regional elections (as long as they happen at most 4 years apart). As another example, the Basque Country and Catalonia have full-range police forces of their own: Ertzaintza in the Basque Country and Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia. Other communities have a more limited force or none at all (eg. Policía Autónoma Andaluza^[1]).

The Constitution recognizes in its Article 2 the right of "regions and nationalities" to self government. The initial intent was not that every part of Spain should become an autonomous community, but that only the so-called historic nationalities would be granted this right. However, while the Constitution was still being drafted, there was a popular outcry in Andalusia for its own right to autonomy, with over a million and a half people demonstrating in the streets of Andalusia on 4th December 1977. This would lead to the inclusion of two articles regarding autonomy in the finished constitution in 1978: Article 143, which would establish the possibility of all regions becoming autonomous communities, with a certain range of limited transferred powers (this was dubbed at the time café para todos ("coffee for everybody") by critics of the decentralization); and Article 151, that would set the roles of autonomous communities with a higher degree of devolved functions.

Article 151 would automatically include the historic nationalities, which have previously enjoyed autonomy during the Second Spanish Republic, as ruled by the Spanish Constitution of 1931, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia, until the Spanish Civil War crushed this experiment. Nevertheless, this article also offered the possibility of other regions or nationalities accessing the same level of autonomy if approved on referendum.

A separate statute of autonomy for Andalusia had been drawn and submitted by Blas Infante [1], then approved by parliament in June 1936, to be voted in referendum in September 1936. However the start of the Civil War in July and the assassination of Infante by Franco's rebels in August of the same year put an end to the autonomist project for Andalusia.

In spite of this, Andalusia was never recognised as a "historic nationality" in the 1978 constitution. This caused a great deal of indignation at the time and fired the fuse of a popular campaign which would lead to a successful referendum vote on 28th February 1980 that required a supermajority. Andalusia would still have to wait two more years, after more political turmoil and broken promises, to join the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia on earning its right to a higher degree of autonomous government.^[2]

Since then, there has been a tendency for "slow-track" communities (those that accessed autonomy via article 143) to aspire to the function range of their elders (Andalusia, Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia). Even in communities without a strong nationalist or regionalist tradition, the local branches of national parties fight for more power and budgets. Current points of disagreement are tax collection and representation at institutions of the European Union.

List of the communities and provinces

See also:

• List of Spanish autonomous communities by area
• List of Spanish autonomous communities by population
• List of ISO 3166 codes for Spanish autonomous communities and provinces

Language footnotes

¹ Not an official language, although spoken by a local minority.

Plazas de soberanía

There are five "places of sovereignty" (plazas de soberanía) near Morocco, under direct Spanish administration:

• Ceuta and Melilla have a status between ordinary cities (they can enact regulations to execute laws, with greater regulatory powers than normal city councils) and autonomous communities (these cities cannot enact "autonomous" laws).
• Islas Chafarinas,
• Peñón de Alhucemas,
• and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

See also

• Flags of the autonomous communities of Spain
• Catalan constitutions
• Nationalities in Spain

References

1. ^ http://www.cartujo.org/pag(a9).htm Orden Ministerial de 31 de agosto de 1993 por la que se constituye una Unidad Autónoma del Cuerpo Nacional de Policía y se adscribe a la Comunidad Autonómica Andaluza.
2. ^ http://www.el-mundo.es/especiales/2005/06/espana/estatutos_autonomia/estatutos/andalucia.html elmundo.es Especial "La España de las Autonomías"

External links

• The Regions of Spain Information about Spain's Autonomous Communities
• Spanish autonomous communities (Rulers.org)

  Administrative divisions of Spain 

Autonomous communities: Andalusia · Aragon · Asturias · Balearic Islands · Basque Country · Canary Islands · Cantabria · Castile‑La Mancha · Castile and León · Catalonia · Extremadura · Galicia · Madrid · Murcia · Navarre · La Rioja · Valencia Autonomous cities: Ceuta · Melilla Plazas de soberanía: Islas Chafarinas · Peñón de Alhucemas · Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

  Provinces of Spain

A Coruña · Álava · Albacete · Alicante  · Almería · Asturias · Ávila · Badajoz · Balearic Islands · Barcelona · Biscay · Burgos · Cáceres · Cádiz · Cantabria · Castellón · Ceuta · Ciudad Real · Córdoba · Cuenca · Girona · Granada · Guadalajara · Guipuscoa · Huelva · Huesca · Jaén · Las Palmas · León · Lleida · Lugo · Madrid · Málaga · Melilla · Murcia · Navarre · Ourense · Palencia · Pontevedra · La Rioja · Salamanca · Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Segovia · Seville · Soria · Tarragona · Teruel · Toledo · Valencia · Valladolid · Zamora · Zaragoza

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