Geography: Comunidades Autónomas
Neither completely centralized nor genuinely federal, the territorial structure of the government of Spain was established by the 1978 Constitution. The territory is divided on comunidades autónomas (autonomous communities), first level political divisions. These autonomous communities are made up of smaller units called provincias (provinces), designed to perform the activities of the State; and, finally these are made of municipios (municipalities); which are granted autonomy to manage their internal affairs. Both the provinces and the municipalities are protected by the constitution.
Spain is currently made up of 17 autonomous communities, two autonomous cities (Ceuta and Melilla, in Africa) and fifty provinces.
The boundaries and powers of autonomous communities were established in individual estatutos de autonomía (Statutes of Autonomy,) a unique system of regional autonomy. The second article of the 1978 Constitution grants the right of self-government to the regions and nationalities that make up Spain (5). In order to exercise the right to self-government, an autonomy had to meet certain requirements like be granted to a province with historical identity, insular territories and two or more adjacent provinces with common economic, historical and cultural attributes. The constitution, nevertheless, allowed exceptions for autonomous communities to be constituted as such reserving the Parliament the right to authorize single provinces without a historical regional identity or to territories that are not provinces (the special case of Gibraltar) both cases authorized in the nation's interest.
The regions were constituted as autonomous communities between 1979 and 1983. The process closed in 1996 when both cities Ceuta and Melilla's statutes of autonomy were established.
Andalucía (Andalusia), Cataluña (Catalonia), País Vasco (Basque Country) and Galicia were granted autonomy as historical nationalities after a rather simple process. Others such as Aragón (Aragon), Castilla la Mancha (Castile La Manche), Castilla y León (Castile and León), Extremadura and Comunidad Valenciana (Valencian Community) were granted autonomy as communities sharing historical characteristics and made up of two or more provinces. As for the Islas Canarias (Canary Islands) and the Islas Baleares (Balearic Islands), both archipelagos were granted the autonomy as insular territories. In the case of Cantabria, Asturias, Murcia and La Rioja were granted autonomy based on their historical regional identity. Navarra (Navarre) was fairly different since it was granted autonomy through the update of medieval fueros (charters). The Comunidad de Madrid (Community of Madrid) was granted autonomy for the nation's interest since it was, and still is, the capital of the State. And finally, Ceuta and Melilla, even though cities, they were granted autonomy in exercise of the rights reserved by the Parliament.
(The following is an image of the seventeen Spanish Autonomous Communities)
The government of the autonomous communities is based on a division of powers comprised by a Legislative Assembly whose members are elected by universal suffrage according to a system of proportional representation; a Government Council with a president with executive and administrative functions. The president is selected by the Legislative Assembly then, there is a Supreme Court of Justice, under the Supreme Court of State, in charge of the judicial organization within the community.
All these autonomous communities have legislative and executive autonomy, their own parliaments and regional government. The distribution of power may be different and depends on their Estatutos de Autonomía (Statutes of Autonomy).
The Statutes of Autonomy are the institutional law of the communities. They established their denomination based on their geographical limits, historical identity, organization of the government institutions, etc. As for the government of the autonomous communities, it depends on a Legislative Assembly whose members are elected by universal suffrage is basis of proportional representation; a Government Council, with administrative and executive functions led by a president, elected by the Legislative Assembly and nominated Juan Carlos I (the king of Spain); a Supreme Court of Justice, under the State's Supreme Court.
The provinces are named after their principal town, except ¡lava, Asturias, Islas Baleares, Cantabria, Guipúzcoa, Navarra, La Rioja and Vizcaya. Two are the cities that are capitals of autonomous communities without being capitals of provinces—Mérida, in Extremadura; and Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia.
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