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Spain is a country that functions a lot like a federation without actually being a federation.

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When a country is a federation, what that means is that it is a union of partially self-governing

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states under a central government. This sounds like Spain, which along with its country-wide

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government has many autonomous communities that are self-governing. These include not only the

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communities in the Iberian Peninsula, but also the insular territories such as one community for the

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Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and another for the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa.

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The cities of Ceuta and Melilla on Morocco's side of the Strait in North Africa have special

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status as autonomous cities, while Gibraltar on Spain's side is not a part of Spain and

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is instead an overseas territory of the UK.

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The autonomous communities were established during Spain's transition to democracy following

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the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

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The framers of the new Spanish constitution in 1978 wanted to maintain a unified, indivisible

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Spanish state, so they were careful to deliberately not make Spain a federation, but at the same time

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needed to keep the Galicians, Catalans, and Basques happy who wanted more autonomy after being

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suppressed by the highly centralized Franco regime. Those communities can sometimes have

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powers that even exceed those of states and federations. Some have recognized distinct

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nationalities, have their own official languages, and some even collect taxes independent of the

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Spanish government. So in practice, Spain behaves like a federation, but in theory, the constitution

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only guaranteed a process through which regions could become self-governing, but did not itself

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establish or list the powers of these entities. Instead, the regions would later gain their rights

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through a statute of autonomy, which is similar to the process of awarding devolved powers in

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non-federations called unitary states. This is an important distinction because in general,

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the constitutions of federations clearly outline the division of powers between the federal

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government and the members. In unitary states, the central government can change the powers of

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its subnational divisions. While in a federation, the federal government must respect the members'

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rights, and often constitutional reforms require consent from the members. But at the same time,

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the members must respect the powers of the federal state and cannot unilaterally succeed.

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This distinguishes federations from confederations, which are unions of sovereign states

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which retain the right to secede at any time. For example, Spain is a member of the European Union,

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which is like a confederation, since member states can leave by invoking Article 50 of the Treaty of

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Lisbon, which established the EU. Spain's complicated internal structure is the result

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of its history. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the local varieties of Latin, used by

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the common people, known as Vulgar Latin, slowly diverged into the various Romance languages.

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For centuries, the north of Iberia was split between many Christian kingdoms,

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while the South was under Muslim rule. In each of the Christian kingdoms,

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Vulgar Latin diverged into different languages, such as Galician, which is related to Portuguese,

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Leonese, Aragonese, and Castilian, which are related to each other, and Catalan,

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which is distantly related to French, but is more closely related to the Occitan language

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that existed in southern France before being mostly replaced by French.

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The Basque language in the Pyrenees Mountains is not a Romance language. It's not even in the

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Indo-European language family of most modern European languages, and so is likely descended

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from a language that existed in those mountains from before Indo-European languages spread into

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Europe. The Castilian language became dominant following its spread during the Reconquista and

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became the language of a unified Spanish kingdom, and is commonly known as Spanish in other languages

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as well as among some Spanish speakers. However, Galician, Basque, and Catalan identities remained

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strong, so they were allowed to quickly establish autonomous communities by the method outlined in

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the constitution when Spain became a democracy. The rest of Spain gradually created their own

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autonomous communities, and now they cover all of Spain's territory. The autonomous communities

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are composed of one or more provinces of Spain, which are themselves composed of municipalities.

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This means most of Spain has four levels of government. Municipal, provincial, the regional

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governments of the communities and the national government. The autonomous cities in North Africa

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take on the powers of a municipality, province, and a community. Some communities are large and

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cover many provinces, but some, like Madrid, established specifically to make administering

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the capital easier, contain just one. In general, all the communities have control over their

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finances and are in charge of education, health, and social services, but other powers are unequally

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distributed among the communities. Some communities have their own civil code which means they have

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their own method of dealing with non-criminal legal decisions and these communities have

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co-official languages along with Spanish. Galicia has Galician and Basque is a co-official language

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in the Basque country along with the Basque-speaking areas of neighboring Navarre. Valencia has a

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variety of Catalan called Valencian and Catalan itself is co-official in the Balearic Islands

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and Catalonia. Additionally, Catalonia recognizes Occitan as co-official, as is spoken by some in

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border regions. As well, Aragonese and Asturian are considered protected languages in their

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namesake regions, and both Asturian and Galician are protected in Castellón León. Catalonia,

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Navarre, and the Basque Country have their own police forces, while Navarre and the Basque

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Country are communities of chartered regime, which means they collect the taxes within their

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territory and then send a portion to the national government to cover its responsibilities.

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communities, all the other communities are part of the common regime where the situation

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is reversed.

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Some communities, notably Catalonia, want more powers devolved, and there is some desire

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in Spain to become fully federalized, but currently Spain is still technically a unitary

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state.

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If you enjoyed this video, you might like this one about Russia, or this one about Spain's

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tiny neighbor Andorra, which speaks Catalan and has two princes, one is a bishop in Catalonia

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and the other is the president of France.