Unitary state
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Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!Unitary state, a system of political organization in which most or all of the governing power resides in a centralized government, in contrast to a federal state. A brief treatment of the unitary state follows. For additional discussion, see Political system: Unitary nation-states.
In a unitary state, the central government commonly delegates authority to subnational units and channels policy decisions down to them for implementation. A majority of nation-states are unitary systems. They vary greatly. Great Britain, for example, decentralizes power in practice though not in constitutional principle. Others grant varying degrees of autonomy to subnational units. In France, the classic example of a centralized administrative system, some members of local government are appointed by the central government, whereas others are elected. In the United States, all states have unitary governments with bicameral legislatures (except Nebraska, which has a unicameral legislature). Ultimately, all local governments in a unitary state are subject to a central authority.
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political system: Unitary nation-states…all the world’s nation-states are unitary systems, including Bulgaria, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Japan, Poland, Romania, the Scandinavian countries, Spain, and many of the Latin American and African countries. There are great differences among these unitary states, however, specifically in the institutions and procedures through which their central governments… -
democracy: Unitary and federal systemsIn most older European and English-speaking democracies, political authority inheres in the central government, which is constitutionally authorized to determine the limited powers, as well as the geographic boundaries, of subnational associations such as states and regions. Such unitary systems contrast markedly… -
constitutional law: The distinction between unitary and federal states…said to possess either a unitary or a federal system (
see also federalism). In a unitary system the only level of government besides the central is the local or municipal government. Although local governments may enjoy considerable autonomy, their powers are not accorded constitutional status; the central government determines which…
