Unitary vs Federal Systems

• Federalism: there are Federal governments in each state of the USA. Legal sovereignty is shared between a national government and local government
• Unitary: a unitary political system is one where all legal sovereignty is contained in a single place e.g. parliament
• Reasons for America's federal system:

  • the country is so large
  • there are different demographics in each place
  • a very large population
  • religious divide
  • different climates/terrain =different needs
  • sources of income differ
• Different laws in the American states:

  • educational laws
  • marriage laws
  • drug laws
  • abortion laws
  • hunting laws
  • gun laws
  • death penalty - 27 states have a legal death penalty, e.g. 586 deaths in Texas since 1977
• Reasons for the divide between North and South of the USA:

  • religious divide
  • historical divide
  • wealth divide
  • geographical divide
• Quasi-Federalism: a system of devolution where it is so unlikely or difficult for power to be returned to central government that it is a federal system even though it is not in constitutional terms
• Devolution: created by Tony Blair in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where limited powerd were given to parliaments and assemblies
• Due to devolution, people now call the UK a 'quasi-federal' state