Practice question · Put in order
Arrange these territorial arrangements from the most centralised to the most decentralised.
- Federal state with constitutionally entrenched division
- Unitary state with devolved administrative powers
- Confederation of sovereign member states
- Regionalised state with legislative competences
- Unitary state with administrative deconcentration only
Hints
- Start where sovereignty is wholly central.
- The confederation is the arrangement where the members retain sovereignty.
Show the answer
- Unitary state with administrative deconcentration only
- Unitary state with devolved administrative powers
- Regionalised state with legislative competences
- Federal state with constitutionally entrenched division
- Confederation of sovereign member states
Why
The ordering is a useful map with one caveat: the steps are not equally spaced and real cases sit between them. Spain is the standing example of a case that sits between the third and fourth positions and is argued about for exactly that reason.
Practise Institutions and the Distribution of Power
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Political Science I is free to start.
More questions on Institutions and the Distribution of Power
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- Sort each feature by the system of government it belongs to.
- Which are true of Linz's critique of presidentialism?
- Complete the account of institutions.
- In a semi-presidential regime, the president and the prime minister can come from opposing parties, producing…
- How many autonomous communities did the 1978 Spanish Constitution ultimately produce?
- Match each institution to the trade-off it embodies.
- Whether a country is a monarchy or a republic tells you little about how democratic it is.