Autonomous communities of Spain
 |
Autonomous communities of Spain. |
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).
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[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.]).
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, till 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, 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.
[http://www.el-mundo.es/especiales/2005/06/espana/estatutos_autonomia/estatutos/andalucia.html elmundo.es Especial "La España de las Autonomías"]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.
Here is a 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 provincesThe map is stable, though some minor groups claim separate communities for León (León, Zamora, Salamanca), Eastern Andalusia (Almería, Granada, Jaén),
Orihuela, and Álava. Also, there is an enclave of Burgos (Castilla y León) inside Álava (País Vasco), called
Condado de Treviño where some inhabitants would like to leave Burgos and join Álava.
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*
Flags of the autonomous communities of Spain*
Catalan constitutions*
The Regions of Spain Information about Spain's Autonomous Communities
*
Spanish autonomous communities (Rulers.org)
