Federations

Isaac Rafael Prieto Jiménez

A federation may be defined as a political system in which at least two territorial levels of government share sovereign constitutional authority over their respective division and joint share of law-making powers. So that, neither the federal government nor the relevant federative entities may unilaterally alter one another’s powers without a process of constitutional amendment in which both levels of government participate. A confederation in which the member-states can strip confederal institutions of their delegated powers without their consent is therefore not a federation.

 

On the other hand, a unitary state in which the central government may lawfully destroy the delegated rights or reconstitute the forms of local or regional governments without their express consent is not a federation; joint participation in sovereign authority by both the federal government and the federative entities is the hallmark of a federation, in addition to autonomy, which is important within the federation.

Federations standardly have bicameral legislatures within the federal government. One chamber represents the federation’s demos, normally in proportion to population. In the chamber of the regions, by contrast, the smallest component units are usually overrepresented.

In some federations the regions enjoy very extensive powers of self-government, in others the federal government has multiple opportunities to extend and even usurp powers it has been granted within the constitution, especially if it is aided by a compliant supreme or constitutional court.