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Autonomous Communities Of SpainSpain's fifty provinces (provincias) are grouped into seventeen autonomous communities (comunidades autnomas), in addition to two African autonomous cities (ciudades autnomas) (Ceuta and Melilla). Formation and Powers Centralism, nationalism and separatism played an important role in the Spanish transition. For fear that separatism would lead to instability and a dictatorial backlash, a compromise was struck among the moderate political parties taking part in the drafting of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The aim was to appease separatist forces and so disarm the extreme right. A highly decentralized state was established, compared both with the previous Francoist regime and with most modern territorial arrangements in Western European nations. The autonomous communities have wide legislative and executive autonomy, with their own parliaments and regional governments. The distribution of competences is different for every community, collected in the "autonomy statute" (estatuto de autonoma). There is a de facto distinction between "historic" communities (Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, and Andalusia) and the rest. The historic ones initially received more functions, including the ability of the regional presidents to choose the timing of the regional elections (as long as they happen at most 4 years apart). As another example, the Basque Country and Catalonia have full-range police forces of their own: Ertzaintza in the Basque Country and Mossos d'Esquadra in Catalonia. Other communities have a limited-bailiwick one or none at all. The Constitution recognizes the historical rights of regions in general terms. This is a reference to the special status of certain regions with respect to the whole as a result of past agreements between the central government and the region, some times centuries ago. It is understood that those rights need to be actualized through the estatuto de autonoma. This explains why the Basque Country and Navarre collect taxes and negotiate with the Spanish government on how much they must contribute to the state's treasury while the rest receive allocations according to the "transferred" government functions. The initial intent was not that every part of Spain should become part of an autonomous community, but that only the "historic" communities would be created. However, shortly after the Constitution was approved, a wave of creation of autonomous communities ensued. This was dubbed caf para todos ("coffee for everybody") by critics of the decentralization. There has been a tendency for "slow-track" communities to aspire to the function range of their elders. Even in communities without a separatist tradition, the local branches of parties fight for more power and budgets. Current points of disagreement are tax collection and representation at institutions of the European Union. The Spanish Constitution of 1931 gave autonomy to Catalonia Galicia and the Basque Country, but the Spanish civil war crushed this experiment. List Here is a list of the communities and provinces.
See also: The map is stable, though some minorities claim separate communities for Len, Orihuela and lava. Also, there is an enclave of Burgos (Castilla y Len) inside lava (Pas Vasco), called Condado de Trevio where some inhabitants would like to leave Burgos and join lava. Plazas de soberana There are five "places of sovereignty" (plazas de soberana) near Morocco, under direct Spanish administration: External link Spain, Autonomous communities of
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