Devolution vs federalism

The definition of devolution: it does mean the process of a higher level of government granting a lower level of government the right to exercise some of its powers, but ultimately remaining superior to the lower level of government. In practice it is much the same as federalism, the main difference is that devolution allows varying levels of autonomy for the different areas (units) within the nation-state, whereas federalism usually requires each unit to have the same powers.

It's not right to think that devolved states (such as the UK) are highly centralised, it was actually brought in specifically to decentralise the UK and Spain, turning them from highly unitary states to what have been dubbed 'quasi-federations'. Devolution is increasingly viewed as a modern type of federalism that allows flexibility, as opposed to the more rigid "traditional" federalism. Only 2 countries really use devolution (UK and Spain), with most federal systems using traditional federalism in one of two forms: federation (strong federal government), or confederacy (weak federal government). It is also wrong to think that devolution means the upper/central government can abolish the lower levels or force them to comply: In the UK all political parties recognise the democratic legitimacy of the devolved institutions and their right to govern within their spheres of responsibility. Each was established after the people voted in referenda to create them, and no british government could remove them. Obviously Britain has no written constitution forbidding this, but the constitution based on tradition has now established a tradition of holding referenda to implement radical constitutional change. Britain sort of operates on the beleif that constitutions aren't strong because of the paper they are written on, but rather because they are respected by the people of