Spain

Regions

In Spain, an autonomous community (region) is a first-level political and administrative division, created in accordance with the Spanish constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy of the nationalities and regions that comprise Spain.

Spain is not a federation, but a highly decentralized unitary state. While sovereignty is vested in the nation as a whole, represented in the central institutions of government, the nation has asymmetrically devolved power to the communities, which, in turn, exercise their right to self-government within the limits set forth in the constitution and their autonomous statutes.