ttogreh t1_j8mkpio wrote
Reply to comment by Argon41 in Nicola Sturgeon to resign as Scottish first minister by icumglass
... That's federalism.
Well, OK. It's federalism with extra steps. But if I described what a state in America was, and then I described what a country in the UK was, an impartial observer would be inclined to say they are roughly equivalent.
dukes158 t1_j8mqsyh wrote
Well the words state and country are subjective and are used interchangeably in different context so yes basically federalism
nagrom7 t1_j8n19xc wrote
Except the UK is weird in that it kinda did it backwards compared to other countries. When other countries like the US or Australia federalised, they did it by unifying a bunch of independent states into one country. The UK did it by splitting their existing unified country into states that hadn't existed with any sort of real autonomy for centuries.
Esuts t1_j8n2z2b wrote
It's definitely a form of [edit: resembles superfically] federalism, but not really equivalent to the US. For instance, England is a country in the UK, but it doesn't have a dedicated parliament or first minister. It's run directly out of the UK Parliament. Imagine the effect if the federal Congress and Presidency were merged with the state government of Texas as the supreme authority over the US but also Texas specifically.
You could still say they're roughly equivalent, but roughly is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
AjaxII t1_j8nfyhp wrote
It's not federalism. Federalism builds it's power from the constituent states/provinces etc that grant power to the central government. The US is federalist as it's a collection of states, and power ultimatly comes from the various states. It's a bottom-up distribution of power.
The UK is a devolved unitary state. All power ultimately lies in the central government in Westminster, and some powers are granted to devolved government's for specific regions. It's a top-down distribution of power.
The easy way to see the difference is that the UK government could 100% legally dissolve the Scottish Parliament tomorrow and directly govern Scotland, they'd manage the impossible and become even less popular - but they could do it; because they are the ultimate source of authority. The US federal government could not dissolve Texas, because it does not have the authority to do so.
It's worth noting that a federalist country still recognises the federal government as supreme over the state governments, but that federal government is limited by the powers granted to it. Whereas a unitary country has no limit, it has ultimate authority in the country (to be kept in check by the judiciary ofc) to do what it wants.
goodanuf t1_j8nke8v wrote
Thank you so much for explaining the system to us!
Redpandaling t1_j8nccsa wrote
So England is the equivalent of Washington DC in that case.
Esuts t1_j8neavo wrote
Kinda, except it's also 85 percent of the population and instead of having less representation than the states, it has more.
StairheidCritic t1_j8npxzk wrote
More like a two state USA where Texas politics rules Connecticut on major issues without the protection of a Written Constitution, equal Senators, the much criticised Electoral College system, or even the prospect of 'Texas' having its powers curtailed by an interventionist Supreme Court (when its not 'packed' by partisan numpties that is). :)
StairheidCritic t1_j8np11l wrote
> It's definitely a form of federalism
No it's not. As one Conservative Politician said decades ago "Power devolved is power retained" (by the central government). That has been proved recently with EU powers that should have been automatically returned to Scotland following the Brexit shit-show were 'grabbed' by Westminster, the ignoring of the mandate the Scots Electorate gave to the SNP & SGreens to hold another Independence Referendum and the outrageous decision for to block Scottish Legislation on Gender Recognition which would bring Scotland into line with another civilised countries.
We were, however, perfidiously promised Federalism (or near to it) during the No Campaign in 2014. Needless to say that was reneged upon.
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