AP® Human Geography · Unit 4 · Topic 4.7
Unitary and Federal States
A unitary state concentrates political power in a central government whose decisions apply everywhere at once; a federal state constitutionally divides power between the central government and its regions, which can act differently from each other.
The difference between unitary and federal states is about where power legally lives. In a unitary state, the national government holds the authority, and it can delegate tasks to local governments but can also take that authority back whenever it wants. Local governments exist at the pleasure of the center. In a federal state, power is split by the constitution itself between the national government and the regional governments, states or provinces. Neither level can simply erase the other's authority, because the division is written into the founding law of the country.
That structural difference changes how a single policy decision moves. In a unitary state like France, when the national ministry issues an order, it takes effect in every classroom, region, and city at once, because there is only one source of authority to satisfy. In a federal state like Nigeria, a policy on education has to pass through two layers: the national government can propose it, but each of the thirty-six states decides separately whether and how to adopt it, since education is a shared power. The outcome can look completely different from one state to the next.
This connects to what comes right after: devolution, when a unitary state voluntarily hands some decision-making power down to its regions without rewriting its basic structure, the way the United Kingdom gave Scotland and Wales their own parliaments. Devolved power stays revocable, unlike the constitutionally guaranteed power regions hold in a federal system. That distinction, revocable versus guaranteed, is the real line between unitary and federal, not a country's size or population.
Key terms
- Unitary state
- A country where constitutional authority is concentrated in the national government, which can grant or revoke local powers.
- Federal state
- A country where a constitution divides authority between a national government and regional governments, each with guaranteed powers.
- Devolution
- The voluntary transfer of some powers from a unitary central government to regional governments, which remains revocable.
- Sovereignty
- The ultimate legal authority to govern, which rests entirely with the center in a unitary state but is shared in a federal one.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does power flow differently through a unitary state than through a federal one?
- Worked exampleShow me the same policy decision travelling through France's system and through Nigeria's.
- Going furtherWhat happens to a unitary state that starts devolving power out to its regions?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a large country automatically a federal one?
Check yourself
End of topic.