Discover

(Redirected from Autonomous community)



'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).

Contents

Formation and powers

List of the communities and provinces

Language footnotes

Plazas de soberanía

See also

References

External links

Formation and powers

''The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all (Article II of the Spanish Constitution)''
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, 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, Navarre and Catalonia have full-range police forces of their own: Ertzaintza in the Basque Country, Foral Police in Navarre and Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia. Other communities have a more limited force or none at all (like the ''Policía Autónoma Andaluza''^[1] in Andalusia or the BESCAM in Madrid).
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 4 December 1977. This led to the inclusion of two provisions in the finished constitution of 1978: ''Article 143'', which established the possibility for all regions to become autonomous communities, even though they would initially have only limited powers (this was dubbed at the time ''café para todos'', "coffee for everybody", by critics of the decentralization on one side, and supporters of the more asymmetric original scheme); and ''Article 151'', which set instead the rules for creating autonomous communities with an immediate larger amount of powers.
The first regions to make use of the possibility of becoming autonomous communities were the historic nationalities, which had previously enjoyed autonomy during the Second Spanish Republic, until the Spanish Civil War had put an end to the experiment: the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia. Nevertheless, all of the other parts of Spain followed their lead.
A separate statute of autonomy for Andalusia had been drawn and submitted by Blas Infante [1], 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 28 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.^[2]
Since then, there has been a tendency for "slow-track" communities (those that accessed autonomy via article 143) to aspire to the range of functions 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.

List of the communities and provinces

'Name' ''Local name(s)''	'Capital'	'Provinces'	'Capital'
'Andalusia' Sp. ''Andalucía''	Seville (Government, Parliament and Ombudsman) Sp. ''Sevilla'' Granada (High Court of Justice)	Almería	Almería
		Cádiz	Cádiz
		Córdoba	Córdoba
		Granada	Granada
		Huelva	Huelva
		Jaén	Jaén
		Málaga	Málaga
		Seville Sp. ''Sevilla''	Seville Sp. ''Sevilla''
'Aragon' Sp. ''Aragón'' Ar.1''Aragón'' Cat.1 ''Aragó''	Zaragoza	Sp. Huesca Ar.1 ''Uesca'' Cat.1 ''Osca''	Sp. Huesca Ar.1 ''Uesca'' Cat.1 ''Osca''
		Sp. Teruel Ar.1 ''Tergüel'' Cat.1 ''Terol''	Sp. Teruel Ar.1 ''Tergüel'' Cat.1 ''Terol''
		Zaragoza Cat.1 ''Saragossa''	Zaragoza Cat.1 ''Saragossa''
'Principality of Asturias': Sp. ''Principado de Asturias'' Ast. 1''Principáu d'Asturies''	Sp. Oviedo Ast.1 ''Uviéu''	Sp. Asturias Ast.1 ''Asturies''	Sp. Oviedo Ast.1 ''Uviéu''
'Balearic Islands' Cat. ''Illes Balears'' Sp. ''Islas Baleares''	Palma de Mallorca Cat. ''Palma'' (official)	Balearic Islands Cat. ''Illes Balears'' Sp. ''Islas Baleares''	Palma de Mallorca Cat. ''Palma'' (official)
'Basque Country' Ba. ''Euskal Autonomi Erkidegoa'' Sp. ''Comunidad Autónoma Vasca''	Ba. Vitoria-Gasteiz (official), Gasteiz (historic) Sp. ''Vitoria-Gasteiz'' (official), Vitoria (historic)	Ba. Araba Sp. ''Álava''	Ba. Gasteiz Sp. ''Vitoria''
		Ba. Gipuzkoa Sp. ''Guipúzcoa''	Ba. Donostia Sp. ''San Sebastián''
		Biscay Ba. ''Bizkaia'' Sp. ''Vizcaya''	Ba. Bilbo Sp. ''Bilbao''
'Canary Islands' Sp. ''Islas Canarias''	Santa Cruz de Tenerife/ Las Palmas de Gran Canaria	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Santa Cruz de Tenerife
		Las Palmas	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
'Cantabria'	Santander	Cantabria	Santander
'Castile-La Mancha' Sp. ''Castilla-La Mancha''	Toledo (Regional Government and Parliament) Albacete (Superior Court of Justice and Ombudsman)	Albacete	Albacete
		Ciudad Real	Ciudad Real
		Cuenca	Cuenca
		Guadalajara	Guadalajara
		Toledo	Toledo
'Castile and León' Sp. ''Castilla y León''	Valladolid (Regional Government and Parliament) Burgos (Superior Court of Justice) León (Ombudsman)	Ávila	Ávila
		Burgos	Burgos
		León	León
		Palencia	Palencia
		Salamanca	Salamanca
		Segovia	Segovia
		Soria	Soria
		Valladolid	Valladolid
		Zamora	Zamora
'Catalonia' Cat. ''Catalunya'' Sp. ''Cataluña''	Barcelona	Barcelona	Barcelona
		Cat. Girona Sp. ''Gerona''	Cat. Girona Sp. ''Gerona''
		Cat. Lleida Sp. ''Lérida''	Cat. Lleida Sp. ''Lérida''
		Tarragona	Tarragona
'Extremadura'	Mérida	Badajoz	Badajoz
		Cáceres	Cáceres
'Galicia' Gl. ''Galicia'', ''Galiza'' Sp. ''Galicia''	Santiago de Compostela (Regional Government, Parliament and Ombudsman) A Coruña (High Court of Justice)	Gl. A Coruña Sp. ''La Coruña''	Gl. A Coruña Sp. ''La Coruña''
		Lugo	Lugo
		Gl. Ourense Sp. ''Orense''	Gl. Ourense Sp. ''Orense''
		Pontevedra	Pontevedra
'La Rioja'	Logroño	La Rioja	Logroño
'Madrid'	Madrid	Madrid	Madrid
'Region of Murcia' Sp. ''Región de Murcia''	Murcia	Murcia	Murcia
'Foral Community of Navarre' Sp. ''Comunidad Foral de Navarra'' Ba. ''Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea''	Pamplona Ba. ''Iruña''	Navarre Sp. ''Navarra'' Ba. ''Nafarroa''	Pamplona Ba. ''Iruña''
'Valencian Community' Vl. ''Comunitat Valenciana'' Sp. ''Comunidad Valenciana''	Vl. València Sp. ''Valencia''	Vl. Alacant Sp. ''Alicante''	Vl. Alacant Sp. ''Alicante''
		Vl. Castelló Sp. ''Castellón''	Vl. Castelló de la Plana Sp. ''Castellón de la Plana''
		Vl. València Sp. ''Valencia''	Vl. València Sp. ''Valencia''

See also:

★ List of Spanish autonomous communities by area

★ List of Spanish autonomous communities by population

★

Language footnotes

¹ Not an official language but is protected and regulated, and spoken by a local minority.

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 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

See also

★ Flags of the autonomous communities of Spain

★ Provinces of Spain

★ Comarcas of Spain

★ List of municipalities of Spain

★ Catalan constitutions

★ Nationalities in Spain

References

1. 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.
2. http://www.el-mundo.es/especiales/2005/06/espana/estatutos_autonomia/estatutos/andalucia.html elmundo.es ''Especial "La España de las Autonomías"''

External links

★ The Regions of Spain Information about Spain's Autonomous Communities

★ Relations between tiers CityMayors feature

★ Spanish autonomous communities (Rulers.org)

★ Maps of the Autonomous Communities of Spain Maps of Spain's Autonomous Communities

★ Maps of the Autonomous Communities of Spain in Chinese Maps of Spain's Autonomous Communities

★ David Brighty. ''State and region: the Spanish experience''.