Editing Federation (section)

===''De facto'' federations===
The distinction between a federation and a unitary state is often quite ambiguous. A unitary state may closely resemble a federation in structure and, while a central government may possess the theoretical right to revoke the autonomy of a self-governing region, it may be politically difficult for it to do so in practice. The self-governing regions of some unitary states also often enjoy greater autonomy than those of some federations. For these reasons, it is sometimes argued that some modern unitary states are ''de facto'' federations.<ref>{{cite journal|url = https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/media/law/docs/undergrad/13-Sahadzic.pdf|title = Federal Theory on Constitutional Asymmetries: revisited|first = Maja|last = Sahadzic|journal = Queen Mary Law Journal|pages = 135–147|access-date = 26 February 2019|archive-date = 27 February 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190227060720/https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/media/law/docs/undergrad/13-Sahadzic.pdf|url-status = dead}}</ref>

''De facto'' federations, or quasi-federations, are often termed "[[regional state]]s".

====Spain====
[[File:Comunidades autónomas de España.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|The [[Autonomous communities of Spain]]]]
[[Spain]] is suggested as one possible ''de facto'' federation<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/25811-Is-Spain-a-federation|title = Is Spain a federation?|website = Eupedia.com|date = 8–25 May 2010}}</ref> as it grants more self-government to its [[Autonomous communities of Spain|autonomous communities]]<ref name="Mallet">{{cite web|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/de6c00f0-8c25-11de-b14f-00144feabdc0.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/de6c00f0-8c25-11de-b14f-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Flimsier footings|last=Mallet |first=Victor|date=18 August 2010|work=Financial Times|access-date=25 August 2010}}{{Registration required}}</ref><ref name="economist.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12501023|title=A survey of Spain: How much is enough?|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=25 August 2010|date=6 November 2008}}{{Subscription required}}</ref> than are retained by the constituent entities of most federations.<ref>{{cite web|first = Luis|last = Moreno|title = Federalization in multinational Spain|url = https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36013985.pdf|publisher = Unidad de Políticas Comparadas (CSIC)|id = Working Paper 07-04|access-date = 26 February 2019|archive-date = 22 September 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210922083211/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36013985.pdf|url-status = dead}}</ref> For the [[Cortes Generales|Spanish parliament]] to revoke the autonomy of regions such as [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], [[Catalonia]] or the [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]] would be a political near-impossibility, though nothing bars it legally. The Spanish parliament has, however, suspended the autonomy of [[Catalonia]] in response to the [[Catalan declaration of independence]], in the lead-up to the [[Catalan regional election, 2017|2017 Catalan election]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.eldiario.es/politica/Rajoy-cesa-Puigdemont-Govern_0_701680927.html|title=Rajoy cesa al Govern, disuelve el Parlament y convoca elecciones para el 21 de diciembre |work=eldiario.es|access-date=10 August 2018|date=27 October 2017}}</ref> Additionally, some autonomies such as [[Navarre]] or the Basque Country have full control over taxation and spending, transferring a payment to the central government for the common services (military, foreign relations, macroeconomic policy). For example, scholar Enrique Guillén López discusses the "federal nature of Spain's government (a trend that almost no one denies)."<ref>[http://www.ugr.es/~pwdconst/enrique/ENRIQUE%20GUILLEN.htm Enrique Guillén López] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091011102721/http://www.ugr.es/~pwdconst/enrique/ENRIQUE%20GUILLEN.htm |date=11 October 2009 }}, JUDICIAL REVIEW IN SPAIN: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT, 41 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 541, 544 (2008).</ref> Each autonomous community is governed by a [[Statute of Autonomy]] ({{Lang|es|Estatuto de Autonomía}}) under the [[Constitution of Spain|Spanish Constitution of 1978]].

====South Africa====
[[File:Map of South Africa with English labels.svg|thumb|Provinces of South Africa]]
Although South Africa bears some elements of a federal system, such as the allocation of certain powers to provinces, some nevertheless argue that it is functionally a unitary state.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261213778|title=The type of government in the Republic of South Africa - Examining the presence of federal and unitary state elements in the republic|last1=Wright|first1=Jonathan Haydn Faure|date=31 March 2014|website=www.researchgate.net|access-date=8 November 2016|quote=After careful research and analysis of various sources and the constitution, it can be confirmed that the government system in the Republic of South Africa is a unitary system. Observance of the government in action, as well as analysis of the constitution, has contributed to this confirmation. Despite the delocalization enjoyed within the republic, the federal principle is not evident enough and it failed Wheare’s very simple federal test right in the beginning}}</ref> On the other hand, if federation is defined as the constitutional entrenchment of the powers of subcentral units (provinces, etc.) that is not unilaterally changeable or revocable by the central authority, South Africa does qualify, formally, as a federal state.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=van Staden |first=Martin |date=Fall 2021 |title=The Potential for Constitutional Devolution in South Africa |url=https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/fall-2021/potential-constitutional-devolution-south-africa |journal=[[Cato Journal]]}}</ref>

====European Union====
{{Original research|section|date=March 2017}}
{{Update|type=section|the three pillars|date=June 2011}}
The [[European Union]] (EU) is a [[sui generis]] [[political union]] or confederation (the assemblage of societies or an association of two or more states into one state).<ref>"Federalist Paper No. 9", p. 70 Alexander Hamilton</ref> [[Robert Schuman]], the initiator of the European Community system, wrote that a [[Transnational governance|transnational]] Community like the founding of the [[European Coal and Steel Community]] lay midway between an association of States where they retained complete independence and a federation leading to a fusion of States in a [[superstate|super-state]].<ref>''La Communaute du Charbon et de l'Acier'', p7 Paul Reuter with a preface by Robert Schuman. Paris 1953.</ref> The [[Founding fathers of the European Union|Founding Fathers of the European Union]] wrote the [[Europe Declaration|Europe Declaration (Charter of the Community)]] at the time of the signing of the [[Treaty of Paris (1951)|Treaty of Paris]] on 18 April 1951 saying that Europe should be organized on a transnational foundation. They envisaged a structure quite different from a federation called the [[European Political Community (1952)|European Political Community]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

The EU is a three-pillar structure of the original supranational [[European Economic Community]] and the nuclear energy cooperation and non-proliferation treaty, [[Euratom]], plus two largely [[intergovernmentalism|intergovernmental]] pillars dealing with External Affairs and Justice and Home Affairs. The EU is therefore not a ''[[De facto#De jure|de jure]]'' federation, although some{{who|date=April 2014}} academic observers conclude that after 50 years of institutional evolution since the [[Treaties of Rome]] it is ''becoming'' one.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Josselin | first1 = J. M. | last2 = Marciano | first2 = A. | doi = 10.1007/s11558-006-9001-y | title = How the court made a federation of the EU | journal = The Review of International Organizations | volume = 2 | pages = 59–75 | year = 2006 | s2cid = 153687230}}</ref> The European Union possesses attributes of a federal state. However, its central government is far weaker than that of most federations and the individual members are sovereign states under international law, so it is usually characterized as an unprecedented form of supra-national union. The EU has responsibility for important areas such as trade, monetary union, agriculture, and fisheries. Nonetheless, EU [[Member State of the European Union|member state]]s retain the right to act independently in matters of foreign policy and defense, and also enjoy a near-monopoly over other major policy areas such as criminal justice and taxation. Since the [[Treaty of Lisbon]], the Member States' right to leave the Union is codified, and the Union operates with more [[qualified majority voting]] (rather than unanimity) in many areas.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

{{quotation|By the signature of this Treaty, the participating Parties give proof of their determination to create the first supranational institution and that thus they are laying the true foundation of an organized Europe. This Europe remains open to all nations. We profoundly hope that other nations will join us in our common endeavor.|[[Europe Declaration]], signed by Konrad Adenauer (West Germany), Paul van Zeeland, Joseph Meurice (Belgium) Robert Schuman (France) Count Sforza (Italy) Joseph Bech (Luxembourg) and Dirk Stikker, J. R. M. van den Brink (The Netherlands).<ref>''Schuman or Monnet? The real Architect of Europe.'' p 129. Bron 2004</ref> }}

{{quotation|Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism.|European Constitutionalism Beyond the State. Edited with [[Marlene Wind]] (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003) page 23|[[Joseph H. H. Weiler]]}}

{{quotation|Those uncomfortable using the "F" word in the EU context should feel free to refer to it as a quasi-federal or federal-like system. Nevertheless, for the purposes of the analysis here, the EU has the necessary attributes of a federal system. It is striking that while many scholars of the EU continue to resist analyzing it as a federation, most contemporary students of federalism view the EU as a federal system. (''See, for instance, Bednar, Filippov et al., McKay, Kelemen, Defigueido and Weingast'')|[[R. Daniel Kelemen]]}}

A more nuanced view has been given by the German Constitutional Court.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/en/press/bvg09-072en.html |title=Federal Constitutional Court Press Release No. 72/2009 of 30 June 2009. Judgment of 30 June 2009: Act Approving the Treaty of Lisbon compatible with the Basic Law; accompanying law unconstitutional to the extent that legislative bodies have not been accorded sufficient rights of participation |access-date=17 November 2012 |quote=Due to this structural democratic deficit, which cannot be resolved in an association of sovereign national states (Staatenverbund), further steps of integration that go beyond the status quo may undermine neither the States' political power of action nor the principle of conferral. The peoples of the Member States are the holders of the constituent power. The Basic Law does not permit the special bodies of the legislative, executive and judicial power to dispose of the essential elements of the constitution, i.e. of the constitutional identity (Article 23.1 sentence 3, Article 79.3 GG). The constitutional identity is an inalienable element of the democratic self-determination of a people. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022061516/http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/en/press/bvg09-072en.html |archive-date=22 October 2012 }} <br />The original German uses the word ''Staatenverbund'', which they translate as "association of sovereign states", rather than the word ''Staatenbund'' (confederation of states) or ''Bundesstaat'' (federal state).</ref> Here the EU is defined as 'an association of sovereign national states (''[[Staatenverbund]]'')'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/es20090630_2bve000208en.html|title=Bundesverfassungsgericht  -  Decisions - Act Approving the Treaty of Lisbon compatible with the Basic Law - accompanying law unconstitutional to the extent that legislative bodies have not been accorded sufficient rights of participation|first=Bundesverfassungsgericht, 2.|last=Senat|date=30 June 2009|website=www.bverfg.de}}</ref> With this view, the European Union resembles more of a [[confederation]].

====People's Republic of China====
{{main|Federalism in China}}
Constitutionally, the power vested in the [[Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China|special administrative region]]s of the People's Republic is granted from the [[Central People's Government]], through a decision by the [[National People's Congress]]. However, there have been certain largely informal grants of power to the provinces, to handle economic affairs and implement national policies, resulting in a system some have termed federalism "[[with Chinese characteristics]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ssrn.com/abstract=1151187|title=Economic Warlords: How De Facto Federalism Inhibits China's Compliance with International Trade Law and Jeopardizes Global Environmental Initiatives by Gregory H. Fuller :: SSRN}}</ref>

====Myanmar====
Constitutionally a [[unitary state]], the political system in Myanmar bears many elements of federalism. Each [[administrative divisions of Myanmar|administrative division]] has its own cabinets and chief ministers, making it more like a federation rather than a unitary state.

====Wallis and Futuna====
The [[France|French]] [[overseas collectivity]] [[Wallis and Futuna]] maintains some quasi-federation attributes. The territory is divided into three traditional chiefdoms: [[Uvea (Wallis and Futuna)|Uvea]], [[Sigave]], and [[Alo (Wallis and Futuna)|Alo]]. The chiefdoms are allowed to have their own [[legal custom|legal system]] which have to be implemented along with [[Law of France|French legal system]].

====Comoros====
Under the terms of the Fomboni Accords,<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Accord cadre pour la reconciliation aux Comores (Accord de Fomboni) |url=https://peacemaker.un.org/comoros-accordfomboni2001 |website=UN Peacemaker |language=fr |date=2001-02-17 |access-date=2024-05-01 }}</ref> signed in December 2001 by the leaders of all three islands, the official name of the country was changed to the Union of the [[Comoros]]; the new state was to be highly decentralised and the central union government would devolve most powers to the new island governments, each led by a president.