The Federation ranks second among the world's countries in terms of distribution. In the modern world only 22 states are federal. These are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Sudan, the United States, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Tanzania, Germany, Switzerland, and some others. But if you look at it from a different perspective, a few hundred years ago such a form of organization as the federation was not known at all. That's why we can say that federalism is gaining popularity and finds its place on the map of our world.
A significant breakthrough in the formation of federal states occurred after the Second World War. It was during this period that the majority of the existing federal states appeared on the map. The process of formation of federations is still going on, as well as liquidation, too. Thus, in the fifties and sixties, Indonesia, Libya and Uganda became unitary states, the federal state of Czechoslovakia collapsed in 1993 and Yugoslavia in 2008. 1991 - the collapse of the Soviet Union and only one of the republics became a federation. But 1994 became the year of formation of two whole federative states - Belgium and Ethiopia. So, let's consider in detail what federalism is.
In Latin, "foederatio" is an association, a union. It is a union state, parts of which are state entities with limited state sovereignty. First of all, the federation is based on the distribution of management functions between the centre and the subjects of the federation.
The federal state structure cannot be the same for all states of this type from the outset. It is connected with the fact that each state has its own national peculiarities in the first place, each state has its own culture, and each subject of the federation is unique. The peculiarity of the federation is also influenced by the historical conditions of the formation of the federation itself.
But there is also a number of fundamental principles of education and functioning of the federative system, from the point of view of which any federation should be considered and evaluated:
- The territory of the federation consists of the territory of its separate subjects;
- The division of powers between the state and its subjects, but on certain issues there is a joint competence;
- A two-tier system, both public authorities and legislative systems. That is, there are federal bodies and bodies of subjects. The parliament at the federation level has a bicameral structure - the upper house represents the interests of the federate entities, while the entities on the ground also have their own local parliaments. Also, the system of legislation (constitution and laws) is adopted both at the level of the federation and at the level of each entity;
- In addition to federal citizenship, federative entities generally have the option of establishing their own citizenship.
The next point to consider in more detail is the types of federations. If we distinguish only two types of unitary states, then the types of federations are more diverse, which once again confirms to us that federalism is a complex form of organization.
The first criterion by which we are going to consider a federation is the way of formation of the federation's constituent entities, according to which three types of federations are singled out:
- Territorial or administrative federation. All subjects of such a federation are formed according to geographical, historical, economic and other peculiarities. Examples include the USA, Brazil and Mexico.
- National Federation. The main criterion for the division of the federation into constituent parts is the national linguistic criterion based on the different peoples living in them. Such a federation is typical for Belgium and India. In the recent past, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were built on the basis of this criterion.
- National-territorial federation or mixed federation. As is already clear from the name, the basis for the formation of this criterion is based on both the above principles of education: territorial and national linguistic. A vivid example of such formation is the Russian Federation.
To be continued in the next part.