Differences between Federalism and Centralism

CentralismFederalism There is a central, single, nuclear government that remotely administers the entire territory of the country, with local representation in the figure of governorates, municipalities, mayors, etc. There is a federal government, with global authority over the territory, in which the different states that make up the country are represented. At the same time, each of them has a local government, more or less autonomous and with its own laws. A single nation is built, politically homogeneous, with a global authority. A federation is built: a strategic union of local states or provinces that sacrifice certain aspects of their sovereignty in favor of territorial and political union. In certain specific cases, instead of a federation there may be a confederation: a federative system in which the local states have even greater autonomy. The laws of the central government are unique for the entire territory and are the product of the national parliament. There are two types of laws: the federal ones, which govern the entire territory, and the provincial or local ones, which are specific to each federal state. The former are the work of the national parliament and the latter of the parliament of each province. The unity of the national territory is inviolable and there is no contemplated form of independence of the regions. The unity of the national territory is governed by the federal authority, but under certain specific conditions processes of independence of the provinces may take place. It can be of two types:

• Pure, when it does not allow any margin of decentralization.
• decentralized, when the central government delegates some administrative powers to its local representatives, without thereby losing its central authority.

It can be of two types:

• Symmetrical, when there is equality of powers among all the federated States.
• Asymmetric, when some of the federated states have greater competence or a greater range of authority than others.

Examples of centralized states are: Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Uruguay, France, Guatemala, Finland and Hungary. Examples of federal or federative states are: Russia, the United States, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Switzerland, Canada and Belgium.