1.7 - Federal and Unitary Systems
States organize power vertically, between national and subnational governments, in one of two main ways: federal systems, which divide power, and unitary systems, which concentrate it.
Federal Systems
Federal states divide power across levels of government, giving subnational units like states, provinces, or regions some real, autonomous authority.
Course countries with federal systems: Mexico (31 states plus Mexico City, which was called the Federal District until 2016), Nigeria (36 states plus a Federal Capital Territory), and Russia (federal subjects, including republics, oblasts, and krais: 83 recognized internationally, or 89 by Russia's own count, which adds Crimea, Sevastopol, and four Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed in 2022).
The national government usually keeps control over foreign policy, defense, national economic policy, interstate commerce, and constitutional matters. Subnational governments handle things like education, social services, local law enforcement, and regional infrastructure. In Mexico, for example, a 1992 agreement handed the running of public schools to the states, so Oaxaca's schools are run differently from Nuevo León's, but the federal Ministry of Education (SEP) still sets the national curriculum, and the federal government handles national security and foreign relations.
Federal systems tend to serve a few purposes: they accommodate diversity by letting regions with different ethnic, linguistic, or cultural populations govern according to local preferences, they allow local responsiveness by tailoring policy to regional needs, they check central power by preventing too much concentration at the national level, and they help manage large territory by delegating administration to governments closer to citizens. Nigeria's federal system, for instance, lets northern Muslim-majority states implement different policies than southern Christian-majority states, which helps reduce conflict over national uniformity.
Unitary Systems
Unitary states concentrate power at the national level. Subnational units get their authority from the central government rather than having any inherent power of their own.
Course countries with unitary systems: China (provinces implement central directives), Iran (provinces governed by centrally appointed officials), and the United Kingdom (Parliament holds supreme authority).
The national government holds ultimate legal authority, can create or abolish subnational units, decides how much local power exists, and keeps policy uniform. Subnational units just implement national policy, exercise delegated administrative functions, and can be restructured by the center whenever it wants. In China, provinces like Guangdong or Sichuan carry out policies decided by the central Communist Party leadership in Beijing and can't independently contradict national directives.
Unitary systems have their own advantages: policy uniformity, since national standards apply consistently everywhere, efficient decision-making, since a centralized authority can act fast without negotiating across levels, clear accountability, since citizens know the national government is responsible for outcomes, and preventing fragmentation, since central control maintains unity and discourages separatism. Iran's unitary system, for example, keeps Islamic law and revolutionary principles applied uniformly across all provinces.
Centralization Can Shift Over Time
The degree of centralization or decentralization isn't fixed, even within federal or unitary systems, and it often responds to political pressure.
Federal systems can centralize when the national government takes on functions previously handled locally, when emergency powers expand central authority, when financial dependence increases national leverage, or when security threats justify centralizing. Under Putin, Russia has centralized power by changing how regional governors are chosen. After the 2004 Beslan school siege, Putin ended direct elections for governors: the president nominated them and regional legislatures approved them. Direct elections came back in 2012 after mass protests, but with a "municipal filter" (candidates need signatures from local council members, where United Russia usually has a majority), and since 2013 regions can drop direct elections and let their legislature pick from candidates the president puts forward, which several North Caucasus republics like Dagestan have done. The president can also fire governors for "loss of trust" and appoint acting governors, who usually win the next election. All of this cuts into regional autonomy despite Russia's formally federal structure.
Unitary systems can decentralize by creating regional parliaments, granting local governments more autonomy, transferring specific policy areas to regional control, or responding to demands for self-governance. The UK devolved power to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland by creating separate parliaments with authority over education, health, and other areas, though Westminster technically still holds ultimate authority and could revoke devolution.
Devolution keeps changing. Wales's Senedd was expanded to 96 members elected by proportional representation for the May 2026 election, when Plaid Cymru, a Welsh nationalist party, won the most seats and formed a minority government, ending Labour's run of leading every Welsh government since 1999. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) has led the government since 2007 and still wants independence, but in 2022 the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish Parliament can't hold a second independence referendum without Westminster's consent.
Internal Actors: Ethnic Cleavages
Ethnic divisions within a state often drive decisions about how power gets distributed. Federal responses to diversity include creating ethnically-based federal units, allowing cultural autonomy within regions, and reducing demands for independence through accommodation. Nigeria's federal structure responds to divisions between Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo populations by creating states with some regional autonomy, though tensions over resources and power-sharing persist.
Unitary responses to diversity, on the other hand, tend to involve maintaining central control to prevent separatism, imposing a national identity over ethnic ones, and suppressing regional movements. China's unitary system deals with minorities like Uyghurs and Tibetans through tight central oversight rather than meaningful autonomy, even though some areas are formally labeled "autonomous regions."
China's unitary system also shows centralization shifting over time. When Britain returned Hong Kong in 1997, China promised it a high degree of autonomy under "one country, two systems." After mass protests in 2019, Beijing imposed a National Security Law in 2020 and rewrote Hong Kong's election rules in 2021 so only "patriots" can hold office, pulling power back to the center.
External Actors: Supranational Organizations
International organizations shape how states distribute power internally. The European Union, for instance, pushes toward both centralization and decentralization at once: states centralize to negotiate effectively with the EU, but regions also gain direct relationships with EU institutions, sometimes bypassing national governments entirely. International financial institutions push their own reforms too, sometimes requiring central government commitments for loans, sometimes demanding decentralization for better governance.
The UK's relationship with the EU created tension between centralized foreign policy authority and devolved Scottish preferences, which contributed to independence debates when Brexit passed despite Scotland voting to remain.
Other countries matter here too: foreign powers may support regional separatists, security threats can push toward centralization, international pressure for human rights can require protecting regional autonomy, and economic relationships affect the bargaining power between government levels. Russia, for example, has centralized power partly in response to perceived threats from NATO expansion, framing stronger presidential control over regions as necessary for national security.
Key takeaway: whether a state goes federal or unitary depends on its history, geography, and diversity, but these systems aren't fixed. Ethnic tensions and outside pressure from international organizations and other countries keep reshaping how centralized or decentralized power actually is, regardless of the formal constitutional structure.