What type of govt does spain have

Weird, right? This absurd rule is written in the Constitution and even though there have been attempts to change it, the Spanish Parliament has decided against doing so. Just as in the U. Although the role of the king is merely symbolic, the generals still answer to him.

The Spanish government follows the same concept of separation of powers as the United States and most democracies in the world. The three branches of the Spanish government are the executive, legislative, and judicial.

Spain has 17 autonomous communities plus two autonomous cities, subdivided into 50 provinces, which are divided into over 8, municipalities. The communities enjoy great autonomy, and the Constitution recognizes their right to self govern.

Citizens of any other member country of the European Union can vote in local and municipal elections, as long as they are residents in Spain. The Kingdom of Spain is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with the king as the head of state, the prime minister as the head of the executive branch of government, an independent system of courts as the judicial power, and the Parliament as the legislative arm of government. The key to understanding the Spanish government lies in its name: Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy.

There you have the three pillars on which Spain structures its government. The Parliament gives it a democratic mandate. Furthermore, since 9 December the Autonomous Communities and the Autonomous Cities may participate in some of the Council of the EU meetings and working groups. The Constitution contains a general warrant of the local autonomy, but the allocation of local powers is regulated by the law. However, the local distribution of powers largely depends on every sectoral law State law or autonomic law and may differ importantly from an Autonomous Community to another.

Besides the powers expressly allocated by the law mainly administrative powers , local authorities may adopt their own rules provided that they respect State and autonomic laws. They also have a general administrative power on matters which are not allocated to other institutions by the law. Local powers are mainly allocated to Municipalities; second-level local authorities, Provinces, have essentially delegated powers and a general power to cooperate with municipalities.

Local government expenditure for the period was 5. According to Article Matters not assumed by the Autonomous Communities remain under the State's jurisdiction. In case of conflict, the laws of the State shall prevail if the matter's exclusive jurisdiction has not been conferred upon the Autonomous Communities. Autonomous Communities are also responsible for the legislative development and implementation of the basic legislation and State legislation.

They may assume competences in the following fields:[4]. For the first time, the new Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands, approved in November , recognises the sea as part of the territory of an Autonomous Community. Before, the sea had never fallen under the jurisdiction of the Autonomous Communities. While this change has no direct impact on the competencies of the Autonomous Communities, it opens the door for the Autonomous Communities especially those constituted by islands to have powers over the sea.

Provinces are responsible for:. The actual provincial competences, which are generally defined as securing coordination and provision of municipal services, largely depend on the Provinces' financial resources, municipal decisions, as well as on historical development.

Therefore, there are tremendous differences between the Provinces. Since then both names have coexisted. Internationally, the most widely accepted name is «Spanish», while «Castilian» tends to be used in the north of Spain and in its bilingual areas, as well as across vast regions of South America. Like the other Romance languages, Spanish was formed over the long period ranging from the 4 th to the 10 th centuries as a result of the fragmentation of Latin. In the 13 th century it was already a language of culture.

The popular epic gave rise to Cantar de Mio Cid , an anonymous 12 th century poem that suggests the existence of an old literary tradition prior to it. In the early 16 th century, Castilian had spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula and was becoming an international language.

In the dissemination of the Spanish language, its arrival in America in was to be crucial. Castilian was to be the language that travelled to the new overseas territories and, once there, it was to borrow many words from the indigenous languages. Instituto Cervantes Ministry of the Presidency Spanish is a language that has been growing virtually since the 16 th century, and time has not held it back.

In the late 19 th century there were around 60 million speakers. Over a century later, Spanish, with million native speakers, is the second most spoken language in the world as a native language after Chinese and ahead of English and Hindi. It is one of the three languages which are habitually considered an official working language in multiple international organisations and one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Today it is the official language around twenty countries across the world. The USA, with its 50 million Hispanics, is the second country in the world in terms of the number of Spanish speakers, after Mexico, and ahead of Spain, Colombia and Argentina. Another significant fact is that Spanish is spoken by In the Instituto Cervantes was founded to universally promote Spanish and disseminate culture in Spanish language.

It is a non-profit body with the main governing body being the board of trustees, whose honorary president is the King of Spain.

The Executive Presidency corresponds to the president of the Government. Together with Castilian, Catalan is the official language of the Autonomous Communities of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands Catalan first appears in written documents in the second half of the 12 th century. Legal, economic, religious and historical texts written in Catalan have been preserved since that time. The first great universal literary talent in this language appeared in the 13 th century: Ramon Llull.

He was the first writer to use Catalan in literary prose as normal instrument of communication and as a tool for cultural expression. After the War of Succession , the use of Catalan was restricted and at times prohibited.

This means that the greater or lesser implantation and use of the language in its own territory since the 18 th century has depended more on political reasons than on strictly sociocultural reasons. Article 7 of the Statute of Regional Autonomy of Comunidad Valenciana establishes that the two official languages of the Autonomous Community are Valencian and Castilian and later states that the Generalitat Valenciana shall guarantee the normal and official use of both languages, adopting the necessary measures to ensure its comprehension.

In addition, it states that special protection and respect for the recovery of Valencian shall be afforded. It achieved its highest literary splendour in the 15 th century and part of the 17 th century. The dukes of Calabria commenced a gradual process of writing more documents in Castilian, but its presence continued in daily use.

Article 3 of the above Act says the purpose of the academy is to determine and compile, if applicable, the linguistic rules of the Valencian language. Basque is one of the oldest languages in Europe. Its origins are subject to a wide range of hypotheses; some linguists argue that it could be related to Caucasian languages, due to certain similarities with Georgian. Since then many rules have been developed and various bodies and institutions have been created in order to recover the linguistic ability, use and status of Basque.

The rules of this language have been established by the Royal Academy of the Basque Language Euskaltazindia , founded in Its literature thrived in the Middle Ages. In the 19 th century there emerged a cultural movement known as the « Rexurdimento » resurgence with the aim of preserving the distinctive features of Galicia, including its language.

In the Galician Royal Academy was established. This represented the institutionalization of the Galician language and rules regarding its idiomatic usage.

The Constitution and subsequent linguistic and educational regulation of Galicia have enabled Galician to be used in schools and as a respected language in social communication. In accordance with article 6 of the Spanish Constitution, the political parties express political pluralism, contribute to the formation and expression of the will of the people and are an essential instrument for political participation. The Constitution protects its creation and activity and determines that its structure and operation should be democratic.

It sets down and specifies the constitutional requirements of organisation and functioning and of activity subject to the Constitution and to law, particularly as regards democratic principles and constitutional values which must be observed in its internal organisation and external activity.

Its aims are to ensure the functioning of the democratic system and essential freedom of citizens; prevent a political party from repeatedly and seriously jeopardising such democratic system of freedom, justifying racism and xenophobia and politically supporting the violence and activities of terrorist groups.

The system of moderate pluralist parties is characterised by the existence of regional and nationalist parties, reflecting the system of autonomous communities and the territorial organisation of the State.

Some 3, parties are officially entered in the Register of Political Parties, although few have a minimum organisational capacity and even fewer have a significant national or regional parliamentary presence. The political participation of Spaniards is performed through their representatives, who are elected by free, equal, direct and secret universal suffrage, through four types of election:. The purpose of this type of election is to appoint the representatives of the Cortes Generales.

Each of the two houses of the Cortes Generales - Congress and Senate - has its own electoral system. The Congress of Deputies uses a modified proportional system. The voting district is the province plus Ceuta and Melilla and they are multi-member districts.

The candidacies are presented in closed blocked lists. Source: Coface European Union. Thank you for submitting. Which of the following best describes you?