Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY

Specialty Definition: Autonomous communities of Spain

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

simple:Autonomous communities of Spain

Spain's fifty provincess (provincias) are grouped into seventeen autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas), in addition to two African autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas) (Ceuta and Melilla).

Formation and Powers

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. As an example, in Catalonia the regional government has allowed registered partnership between homosexuals in order to bring their rights on a par with heterosexual married couples, whereas this form of partnership has no legal standing in the rest of Spain. Similar laws have been enacted by some cities, though.

The distribution of competences is different for every community, collected in the "autonomy statute" (estatuto de autonomía). There is a de facto distinction beween "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 limited-bailiwick one or none at all.

The Constitution recognizes the historical rights of regions in general terms. This is a reference to the special status of certain regions with respect to the whole as a result of past agreements between the central government and the region, some times centuries ago. It is understood that those rights need to be actualized through the estatuto de autonomía. This explains why the Basque Country and Navarre collect taxes and negotiate with the Spanish government on how much they must contribute to the state's treasury while the rest receive allocations according to the "transferred" government functions.

The initial intent was not that every part of Spain should become part of an autonomous community, but that only the "historic" communities would be created. However, shortly after the Constitution was approved, a wave of creation of autonomous communities ensued. This was dubbed café para todos ("coffee for everybody") by critics of the decentralization.

There has been a tendency for "slow-track" communities to aspire to the function range of their elders. Even in communities without a separatist tradition, the local branches of parties fight for more power and budgets. Current points of disagreement are tax collection and representation at institutions of the European Union.

The Spanish Constitution of 1931 gave autonomy Catalonia and the Basque Country, but the Spanish war crushed this experiment.

List

Here is a list of the communities and provinces.

Name Local name(s)	Capital	Provinces	Capital
Andalusia Andalucía	Seville Sp. Sevilla	Almería	Almería
		Cádiz	Cádiz
		Córdoba	Córdoba
		Granada	Granada
		Huelva	Huelva
		Jaén	Jaén
		Málaga	Málaga
		Sevilla	Seville
Aragon Aragón	Zaragoza	Huesca	Huesca
		Teruel	Teruel
		Huesca	Zaragoza
Asturias As Asturies	Oviedo	Asturias As Asturies	Oviedo
Balearic Islands Cat Illes Balears Sp. Islas Baleares	Palma de Mallorca	Balearic Islands Cat Illes Balears Sp. Islas Baleares	Palma de Mallorca
Basque Country Ba Euskadi Sp. País Vasco	Vitoria Ba. Gasteiz	Álava Ba. Araba	Vitoria Ba. Gasteiz
		Guipúzcoa Ba. Gipuzkoa	San Sebastián Ba. Donostia
		Vizcaya Ba. Bizkaia	Bilbao Ba. Bilbo
Canary Islands Islas Canarias	Santa Cruz de Tenerife/ Las Palmas	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Santa Cruz de Tenerife
		Las Palmas	Las Palmas
Cantabria	Santander	Cantabria	Santander
Catalonia Cat Catalunya Sp. Cataluña	Barcelona	Barcelona	Barcelona
		Girona Sp. Gerona	Girona Sp. Gerona
		Lleida Sp. Lérida	Lleida Sp. Lérida
		Tarragona	Tarragona
Castile-La Mancha Castilla-La Mancha	Toledo	Albacete	Albacete
		Ciudad Real	Ciudad Real
		Cuenca	Cuenca
		Guadalajara	Guadalajara
		Toledo	Toledo
Castile-Leon Castilla-León	Valladolid	Ávila	Ávila
		Burgos	Burgos
		León	León
		Palencia	Palencia
		Salamanca	Salamanca
		Segovia	Segovia
		Soria	Soria
		Valladolid	Valladolid
		Zamora	Zamora
Extremadura	Mérida	Badajoz	Badajoz
		Cáceres	Cáceres
Galicia Ga ''Galiza'\'	Santiago de Compostela	A Coruña Sp. La Coruña	A Coruña Sp. La Coruña
		Lugo	Lugo
		Ourense Sp. Orense	Ourense Sp. Orense
		Pontevedra	Pontevedra
La Rioja	Logroño	La Rioja	Logroño
Madrid	Madrid	Madrid	Madrid
Murcia	Murcia	Murcia	Murcia
Navarre Ba Nafarroa Sp. Navarra	Pamplona Ba. Iruña	Navarre Ba Nafarroa Sp. Navarra	Pamplona Ba. Iruña
Valencia Vl Comunitat Valenciana Sp. Comunidad Valenciana	Valencia	Alicante Vl. Alacant	Alicante Vl. Alacant
		Castellón Vl. Castelló	Castellón de la Plana Vl. Castelló de la Plana
		Valencia Vl. València	Valencia Vl. València

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 provinces

The map is stable, though some minorities claim separate communities for León, Orihuela and Álava. Also, there is an enclave of Burgos (Castilla y León) inside Álava (País Vasco), called Condado de Treviño which would like to leave Burgos and join Álava.

Plazas de soberanía

There are five "places of sovereignty" (plazas de soberanía) near Morocco, under direct Spanish administration:

• Ceuta and Melilla have a status between plain cities (they can produce regulations to execute Actss, with higher regulation competencies than normal city councils) and autonomous communities (these cities cannot produce autonomous Acts).
• Islas Chafarinas,
• Peñón de Alhucemas,
• and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

External link

• Spanish autonomous communities (Rulers.org)

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Autonomous communities of Spain."

Top