Advantages and Disadvantages of the Unitary, Confederation and the Federal system of the Government We can look at governmental systems as a continuum from a unitary type to a confederacy with federalism sitting in the middle. The unitary government is often described as a centralized government. It is a government in which all powers held by the government belong to a single, central agency. The central government creates local units of government for its own convenience. Most of the government in the world are unitary, Great Britain being one of them.
One single central organ is Parliament it holds all the power of the British government. Local governments do exist but solely to relieve Parliament of burdens it could perform only with difficulty and inconvenience. There are some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are uniform policies, law, political, enforcement, administration throughout country. There is less duplication of services and fewer conflicts between national and local government also greater unity and stability. The disadvantage is that the central government is out of touch with local concerns which it makes it slow in meeting local problems.
If the central government gets too involved in local problems it may not meet the needs of all its citizens. Then there is confederate government is an alliance of independent states. A central organ; The confederate government has the power to handle only those matters that the member states have assigned to it. Typically, confederate governments have had limited powers and only in such fields as defense and foreign commerce. In our own history, the United States under the Articles of Confederation and the Confederate States of America are examples of the form.
Confederations are very rare in today’s world. The European Union is the closest approach to a confederation today. Like unitary there are advantages and disadvantages to confederate government. The advantages are keeping power at local levels preventing the growth of a large central government and Makes it possible for the several states to cooperate in matters of common concern and also retain their separate identities. The disadvantages are weakness of central government it makes it unable to enforce laws or collect taxes, also lack of unity and common laws.
Lastly we move to federal government this is one in which the powers of government is divided between a central government and several local governments. There is a authority superior to both the central and local governments which makes this division of powers on a geographic basis; That division cannot be changed by either the local or national level acting alone. Both levels of government act directly on the people through their own sets of laws, the officials, and agencies. In the United States, for example the National Government has certain powers and the 50 states have others.
This division of powers is set out in the Constitution of the United States. However federal government also has the advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of the Federal unity is that local government handles local problems also the local government and officials have to be very responsive of the people who elect them. The central government can devote more time and energy to national and international problems. They also have more opportunities for participation in making decisions that influence what is taught in the schools, also deciding where highways and government projects are to be built.
The disadvantages are the duplication of services; Also the citizens living in different parts of the country will be treated differently, not only in spending programs, such as welfare, but in legal systems that are assigned in different places different penalties to similar offenses or that differentially enforce civil rights laws; Disputes over power national supremacy versus state’s rights, international relation states may pass laws that counter national policy.
Well I feel a little more at ease knowing that I live where there is federal government and not a unitary government or confederate government In France, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, they have a unitary system. This means that the central government always has the final say. In Switzerland, they have a confederation, where the states are completely independent. Switzerland’s central government only becomes involved with common concerns. . I guess it all comes down to authority, freedom and equality and we have it all with the federal government.
