Autonomous Communities of Spain

Autonomous Communities Of Spain

An autonomous community (in Spanish: comunidad autónoma, in Basque: autonomia erkidego, in Catalan: comunitat autònoma, in Galician: comunidade autónoma) is a first-level political and administrative division of Spain created in accordance to the Spanish constitution of 1978 with the aim of guaranteeing the autonomy of the nationalities and regions that integrate the Spanish nation. Since sovereignty resides in the nation as a whole—and represented in the State-wide or central institutions of government—and not in the communities, Spain is not a federation, but a highly decentralized unitary state, that has devolved power to the communities, which in turn, exercise their right to self-government within the limits set forth in the constitution. Currently, there are 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities that are collectively known as autonomies (Spanish: autonomías). This unique framework of territorial administration is known as the State of autonomies (Spanish: Estado de las autonomías).

The autonomous communities are governed according to the constitution and their own organic laws known as Statutes of Autonomy, which contain all the competences that they assume. Since devolution was intended to be asymmetrical in nature, the scope of competences vary for each community, but all have the same parliamentary structure.