A unitary system is a form of government where the central government has all the power and local governments have limited powers. It is the most common form of government in the world and is found in both democratic and non-democratic countries. The central government is responsible for handling nationwide matters, but some unitary governments delegate decision-making power to regional or local authorities through devolution. Examples of devolution include the Northern Ireland Assembly, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Scottish Parliament in the UK, as well as the five autonomous regions of Italy and the regional and provincial governments of Papua New Guinea. Spain is considered to straddle the border between a unitary system and a federal state due to its autonomous communities having more authority within their territories than states in most officially federal forms of government.
A unitary system is a form of government in which authority is concentrated in the central government. Local governments, such as those of regions or cities, are under the control of this central authority. They have only those powers granted to them, and the central government can modify or abolish local authorities at will. This distinguishes this type of system from federal state government, in which the constituent units of the federation themselves have at least some attributes of a sovereign state in their own right that the federal government must respect, and from confederations, in which sovereign states voluntarily delegate certain powers to a supranational organization.
This system is the most common form of government in the world and appears in both democratic and non-democratic countries. Most European nations have unitary governments, with the exceptions of Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria and Russia, as well as most of Africa and Asia. Most governments based on the Westminster system are unitary, although Canada, Australia, India and Malaysia have federal constitutions. Today’s monarchies where the monarch still has significant power, such as Liechtenstein, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are usually unitary, although the UAE is a federation governed by an elected monarchy. Dictatorial and one-party governments are almost always unitary, although the defunct Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was an exception.
The central government in a unitary system is responsible for handling nationwide matters, such as foreign relations, national defense, and national economic policy. The central ruler or decision-making body controls all aspects of governance, because there are no powers or functions legally reserved for other levels of authority. All areas of government ultimately come under the authority of a single body, so states that have this type of system often have more uniform laws and regulations than federations. The central government may also be responsible for appointing personnel from lower levels of government, such as regional or provincial governors.
Government decisions in unitary states are not necessarily made by the central authority. Some unitary governments delegate a degree of decision-making power to multiple regional or local authorities in a process called “devolution,” which is often set up to accommodate ethnic or linguistic minorities who want greater autonomy. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the National Assembly for Wales and the Scottish Parliament have legislative powers for their respective regions. These bodies were created and their powers defined by the UK Parliament. Parliament has the power to abolish these bodies or to increase or decrease their powers at its discretion, and the constituent countries of the United Kingdom have no sovereignty of their own.
Other examples of devolution within such a system include the five autonomous regions of Italy and the regional and provincial governments of Papua New Guinea. An extreme case is the Spanish system of autonomous communities, which remain officially subordinate to the national government but have broad powers and account for the majority of public expenditure. Spain is sometimes considered to straddle the border between a unitary system and a federal state, because many of the regional governments have more authority within their territories than states in most officially federal forms of government, and the political entrenchment of autonomous regions would make it extremely difficult for the central government to abolish them despite officially having the power to do so.
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