One of the important characteristics of any country of a federal system is its symmetry or asymmetry. Equality between individual subjects of the federation has a greater impact on the development of the country as a whole and individual regions in particular. In the material below, we will consider these two types of federations in detail. Let's discuss how they differ, what is the inequality, and why Russia is an asymmetric federation.
Signs of federation
Federation is an association of several state entities, called subjects. They do not have state sovereignty, but they have fairly high powers to create their charters and laws. Individual districts and districts are also subject to the constitution of the country in which they are located. At the same time, they can have their own institutions of citizenship, capital, coat of arms and other elements of the legal status of the state. It is important to understand that a separate subject cannot become a participant in international relations without leaving the federation. Each one represents a state, province, province, province, or state (in the manner of Germany or Austria).
So, the federation has the followingsalient features:
- the territory of the federation is divided into separate territories (subjects);
- legislative and judicial power belongs to state bodies;
- in such states there are two houses of parliament.
There are symmetrical and asymmetric federations.
Symmetrical federation
First, let's talk about the first type. A symmetrical federation is a federation whose main feature is the equality of all districts located on its territory. Separate regions and republics are homogeneous in nature and have an equal status in front of each other. Typically, entities in a country have an identical name, such as a county or province. The same system of power operates in them, without any regional differences. The level of development of the subjects is approximately at the same level as the individual spheres of life. Medicine and education function throughout the federation in a similar way. Most modern states follow the path of introducing asymmetric elements, since even extremely symmetrical federations cannot exist in this form for a long time.
Asymmetric federation
There is also the opposite type of countries. An asymmetric federation is a form of government in which different republics, districts or lands have unequal rights. Individual subjects in such countries differ in their status. For example, republics as part of a federation can give people unique citizenship. AtThey have their own constitution, different from the one adopted in the country. At the same time, other entities, smaller ones, can only create their own statutes. Some republics even proclaim themselves sovereign states, clearly indicating this in legal documents. All land and resources are the property of the citizens living within its boundaries. These are not all signs to consider. Asymmetry also manifests itself in the system of tax payments. All subjects of the federation replenish the federal budget and receive a certain share of deductions. Nevertheless, some districts can be donors to the state and give much more than they receive, while others can receive permanent subsidies and exist only thanks to them. Some entities even agree on a reduction in tax payments and keep part of the funds.
Examples of symmetrical federation
There are not so many examples of purely symmetrical federations that exist today. One of these is Ethiopia. The country declared itself a symmetrical federation in 1994, documenting this in its own constitution. In this form, the state can only exist for a while, since each individual region of the federation cannot develop on an equal footing with others. Because of this, some changes are introduced into the political system, giving the country signs of asymmetry. This is how they did it in Austria and Germany.
Austria
In Austria, there is an administrative division of the country into 9 feudal lands, includingthe city of Vienna, which is the capital of the federation. The lands, in turn, consist of separate districts, statutory cities and communities. The legislatures of all the Länder are elected by popular vote. The governors of the states are elected by the state assembly. At the same time, the administrative bodies of government are appointed by the state from above. These rules apply throughout the country, but at the same time, each district has a separate judicial system, which, although related to the federal one, still has its own differences. Some areas of life, such as medicine, for example, are universal for the whole country and the countries that are part of the European Union. Nevertheless, even here there is some decentralization (as in the United States). Each province in Austria has its own separate functions in the he althcare system, as well as a number of restrictions. Similar subtle differences can be seen in education, energy or mining.
Germany
Germany has a similar system. The federation consists of 16 states. Of these, 13 are state regions, and 3 three are cities. Capital cities include Hamburg, Berlin and Bremen. Some parts of Germany are called federal lands, but this is not entirely correct, since according to official documents they are all united into one state and are not considered independent administrative units. The legislature - lagdat - of each district is elected by the people, after which the executive bodies, the prime minister of the district and others are appointed by the Landtag. The only thing that gives out in Germanyelements of asymmetry - unequal representation of the states in the lower house of parliament, but legally they still have equal status.
Examples of asymmetric federation
Typical examples of an asymmetric federation are countries such as India, Tanzania, Brazil and Canada. Individual lands and districts of these countries differ to a large extent from each other in their status and rights. These states include the United States of America and Russia. In fact, both countries are federations with a multi-level symmetry of the federal structure. At least that's what the constitutions say.
United States of America
If you take a deeper look at the system of government in the United States, then the answer to the question of why this federation is considered asymmetric becomes more than obvious. So the USA is divided into 55 states. Each of them has equal rights, the inhabitants of these states are citizens of America without any exceptions. People living in the country have identical rights and obligations. The snag is that in addition to the main states, America unites several more subjects with them. The District of Columbia, for example. This region is not part of any state, and people living in its territory have fewer rights. At the same time, no one represents Colombia in the Senate, and a delegate in the House of Congress does not even have the right to vote. This category also includes island territories belonging to the United States. These are the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam. Some of theseobjects is under full control of the state, and some have certain freedoms in terms of self-government. Moreover, the inhabitants of the islands are not even US citizens, they are their subjects, therefore they cannot even participate in presidential elections.
Canada
Canada is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories. These types of subjects differ in a number of ways. The provinces have higher powers that were assigned to them by the constitution as early as 1867. Their rights are unshakable. They can only be changed by changing the constitution itself.
The provinces are independent from the federal government and from each other. This means that even if there are changes in constitutional law, they will not affect the district that expresses its disagreement with the adopted amendments. However, they can change their provincial constitution at any time. Independent territories of Canada can also make laws that relate to their field of activity, whether it be medicine, education or trade, but the Federal government, for its part, can organize a program to test an individual district for the level of competence in a particular area. Provincial governments in this case may also refuse this program.
Russia as an asymmetric federation
Russia is an asymmetric federation, despite the fact that the state constitution states otherwise. Based on the information specified in Article 5 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, all subjects of the state (autonomousdistricts, territories, republics) are absolutely equal. Regardless of territorial features. However, in order to prove that Russia is an asymmetric federation, it is enough to consider how some subjects, in particular the republics, function.
Some of them have their own constitutions, elect presidents (for example, the Chechen Republic is a de facto separate state). The peoples living in these territories have their own nationality, despite the fact that they still live within Russia. Other subjects of the federation do not have such privileges. Some autonomous okrugs are even part of individual territories, which provokes the subordination of one subject to another. Representatives of the country conclude agreements with representatives of individual districts, republics and territories. In most cases, these treaties are no different from each other, but some entities are given wider powers.
Russia's fight against asymmetry
The Russian Federation is asymmetric, but attempts to abolish the state system by this system were made in the last century. Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin in 1990 proposed to unite all subordinate districts and territories into the Russian Republic, but this project was not further developed.
Later, in 1995, some changes did take place. The heads of districts were given equal rights with the presidents of the republics. Former governorsappointed by government bodies, and from 1995 to the present day they are elected by the people.
