Systems of Government

Confederal, Unitary and Federal

Confederal

• An alliance of independent states. • Confederate governments have limited powers• Weak central government • Are sovereign in their own internal affairs

Examples

• Articles of Confederation (1781-1789)• Confederate States of America (1861-65)

• Iroquois Confederacy

ADVANTAGES 1. Keeps power at local levels preventing the growth of

a large central government. 2. Makes it possible for the several states to cooperate

in matters of common concern and also retain their separate identities.

DISADVANTAGES 3. Weakness of central government makes it unable to

enforce laws or collect taxes.4. Lack of unity and common laws.

Confederal

Unitary

• A unitary state is governed constitutionally as a single unit.

• A central government holds all the constitutional power• The central government creates local units of

government for its own convenience.• Most governments in the world are unitary.

Examples:

France, Denmark, Great Britain

ADVANTAGES1. Uniform policies, laws, political, enforcement, administration

throughout the country. 2. Less duplication of services and fewer conflicts between national

and local governments.3. Greater unity and stability.

DISADVANTAGES 4. Central government out of touch with local concerns 5. Slow in meeting local problems.6. If the central government gets too involved in local problems it

may not meet the needs of all its citizens.

Unitary

Federal

• Powers of government are divided between a central government and state and local governments.

• Both the central and state governments makes this division of powers on a geographic basis; and that division cannot be changed by either the state or national level acting alone.

• Both levels of government affect the people directly through their own sets of laws, officials, and agencies

ADVANTAGES

1. Federal unity but local governments handle local problems.2. Local government officials have to be responsive to people who elect them 3. Central government can devote more time and energy to national and

international problems.4. More opportunities for participation in making decisions – in influencing what

is taught in the schools and in deciding where highways and government projects are to be built.

DISADVANTAGES 5. Duplication of services.6. Citizens living in different parts of the country will be treated differently, not

only in spending programs, such as welfare, but in legal systems that assign in different places different penalties to similar offenses or that differentially enforce civil rights laws.

7. Disputes over power/national supremacy versus state’s rights.8. International relations – states may pass laws that counter national policy.

Examples of Federal Governments

1. Argentina (23 provinces and 1 autonomous city) 2. Australia (6 states and 2 territories) 3. Austria (9 states) 4. Brazil (26 states) 5. Canada (10 provinces and 3 territories) 6. Germany (16 states) 7. India (28 states and 7 union territories) 8. Malaysia (13 states) 9. Mexico (31 states) 10. Nigeria (36 states) 11. Pakistan (4 provinces and 1 territory) 12. Palau (16 states) 13. Papua New Guinea (20 provinces) 14. South Africa (9 provinces) 15. Switzerland (26 cantons) 16. United Arab Emirates (7 emirates) 17. United States (50 states)

Parliamentary

States in which a prime minister is the active head of the executive branch of government and also leader of the legislature. However, there is also a president who serves as a symbolic head of state in some figurehead capacity. The following list includes democratic and non-democratic states:

15. Hungary 16. Iceland 17. India 18. Iraq 19. Ireland 20. Israel 21. Italy 22. Latvia23. Lithuania 24. Malta 25. Mauritius 26. Mongolia 27. Montenegro 28. Poland

1. Albania2. Austria3. Bangladesh4. Bosnia and

Herzegovina 5. Bulgaria 6. Croatia 7. Czech Republic 8. Dominica 9. Estonia 10. Ethiopia 11. Fiji12. Finland 13. Germany 14. Greece

29. Portugal 30. Romania 31. San Marino 32. Serbia 33. Singapore 34. Slovakia 35. Slovenia 36. Trinidad and

Tobago 37. Turkey