To what extent can Spain be called federal when compared with German federalism?

This paper will serve to answer the question in the subject. It is important to bear in mind that this question will be answered via a comparison. Because of this comparison a certain structure is maintained during this paper. It will discuss the key points of the German political form first, where after the key points of Spain will be discussed. These two forms will be compared to each other, to expose to what extend Spain is a federal State.

For the purpose of this paper, federalism entails that there needs to b e a form of political integration whereby the states, transfer sovereign powers to the federation. The federation then would control the actions from the states from a central government. Key-marks of federalism will be broad competence for the states, limited competences for the central government and entrenchment of divided power in the constitution.
For this paper the distinction between co-ordinate federalism and co-operative federalism is made. In co-ordinate federalism each state is separate, has its own exclusive competences, its own administration, its own taxes and a minimal need for co-operation.
Co-operative federalism on the other hand entails more collaboration between the states and the central government. Competences between states are mostly shared, the central government legislated and the states are to implement this legislation in most fields, the states are however represented in the legislative procedure, taxes are shared and there is a stronger need for co-operation compared to co-ordinate federalism.
Evidently, different distinctions between federalism can be made. Distinctions are theory, where practice often shows that it cannot be divided into two groups easily, overlap occurs.

Germany
Germany’s political form is encoded in the German Basic Law; it is a federal State. This political form cannot be amended.
The federation is divided into sixteen states, which are called ‘Länder’, covered by a federal government. These states participate in the legislation and administration of the federation, and matters of the European Union, through the Bundesrat, the federal government. Each state has its own government of which the members appoint and recall the members of the Bundesrat. Its role is similar to an upper house in a bicameral parliament. Depending on population size the States are herein represented via a certain number of votes. The federal government is headed by a federal chancellor and is accountable to the Bundestag. The State Germany is headed by the Federal President.
The parliament of the federation is directly elected and is called the ‘Bundestag’. Proportional representation between states is pursued in the Bundestag. Each state has its own parliament as well.
Where legislative power is not conferred on to the Federation, the states have the right to legislate. The legislative power of the states is laid down in the Basic Law. The constitution divides competences between the federal government and the states. There can be exclusive or concurrent competences. In the case of an exclusive competence only the federal lawmaker can legislate. The federal government has exclusive legislative competences in the fields of defense, foreign affairs, immigration, transportation, communications and currency standards. Concurrent competences are the competences where the states can legislate only when and in as far as the federal lawmaker has not legislated. The shared competences between the states and the federal governments are civil law, refugee law, public welfare, land management, consumer protection, and public health. The federal law has supremacy over state law. Once adopted, states are expected to execute federal legislation. There are also areas in which the federal government offers general policy guidelines, such as mass media or nature conservation. These guidelines are acted upon by the states.
The power of the legislative initiative lies with the government, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Bundestag has more powers than the Bundesrat.
The head of state is the president of Germany. The Federal President represents the stat. The head of Government is the Federal Chancellor. The Chancellor is elected by and responsible to the Bundestag. The Federal Ministers are chosen by the Chancellor. The bundestag has to agree on a successor before the Chancellor can be removed, the vote of no confidence. Ordinarily the Chancellor has a four-year term of office.
Germany’s judiciary is independent from the executive and the legislature, as encoded in the constitution. The judicial system is divided on the basis of hierarchy; state courts are inferior to the supreme courts, which are federal courts. The Federal Constitutional Court may only judge on constitutional matter, the Federal Court of Justice may judge in any case. States participate in the appointment of ordinary federal judges and the federal constitutional court judges. When a conflict arises between states and the federal government they can turn to the ‘Bundesverfässungsgericht’.
Each state also has its own constitution.
The federation has a mechanism to equalize payments. In this way a redistribution of financial means between states will take place.
When translated to the co-ordinate/co-operative distinction of federalism. Germany falls under the co-operative distinction; the Basic Law shares the competences between the states, states are to execute the federal legislation, taxes are shared among the states and the federal government, the states are represented in the central legislature via the Bundesrat.

Spain
Spain is a constitutional monarchy. After the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 Spain began to democratize. A nation that had been supressed was in need of a new political system, the new leaders ought to satisfy different interests. They institutionalized the new form in a new constitution.
The political system consists of autonomous communities, which are then divided into 50 provinces. The right to autonomy or self-government is guaranteed to the nationalities and regions of Spain by the constitution. The autonomy was granted to ‘two or more adjacent provinces with common historical, cultural and economic characteristics, insular territories, or a single province with a historical regional identity’. The constitution foresees in two exceptions to these criteria, the Spanish Parliament has the right to grant these.
The state remains the full sovereign of the autonomous communities.
The autonomous competences are encoded in the ‘Estatuto de Autonomia’ each state has. The states of Basque, Catalonia and Galicia enjoy supplementary rights on the fields of economic development, education, health, environment, police, public works, tourism, culture, local language and social security.
Thus this decentralized system of administration is not symmetrical, it is asymmetric.
Each autonomous community has a parliamentary system; the executive power lies with the president and a council of ministers. Who are elected by and responsible to a unicameral legislative assembly.

A main institution of the nation is the ‘Cortes Generales’. This is a bicameral parliament. Firstly, there is a Congress of Deputies, a general assembly of representatives. This lower house can propose legislative changes. There is a minimum of 300 members of parliament and a maximum of 400, who have a four-year term or until the ‘Cortes Generales’ are dissolved. The members are voted in via a system of proportional representation. Each province forms a constituency and is assigned a minimum of two deputies. The Congress of Deputies can propose legislation. Their election of the Prime Minister goes via a vote of investiture. Via a motion of censure the Congress of Deputies can vote the Prime Minister out by absolute majority. The Prime Minister on his end may request a vote of confidence, when he fails in his attempt to obtain it, the ‘Cortes Generales’ will be dissolved.
Secondly, there is the assembly of senators, the upper house. Effectively speaking it is the chamber of territorial representation. Each province sends four senators, there are some exceptions. This number is supplemented with a certain number of senators; one is elected by the legislative assembly of each autonomous community and another on per each one million inhabitants. The Senate can propose legislature as well. The Senate has less power than the Congress of Deputies. A veto of the Senate may be overturned by an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies. Senators serve a four-year term or until de dissolution of the ‘Cortes Generales’.
These houses usually meet separately, exceptionally they meet jointly. Such meetings occur when for example the elaboration of laws is proposed by an autonomous community. The bicameral system is asymmetric. The Congress of Duties has more independent functions and is able to override decisions of the Senate. Absolute majority of both the Congress of Duties and the Senate is needed to pass organic laws.
However, the Senate is granted with a few certain exclusive functions in the appointment of constitutional posts. The senate can dissolve local governments

The head of state is the Monarch; the constitution refers to him as ‘la Corona’, the Crown. Currently Felipe VI holds the Crown. The Monarch does not have an executive roll. However, he is commander in chief of the Spanish Armed Forces. The Monarch nominates a candidate for presidency. Prior to this nomination the Monarch speaks with the leaders of the parties represented in the Congress of Duties, and then he consults with the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies. In practice, this means that the Congress of Duties has a say in the appointment of this president due to its commanded confidence of the Congress of Duties. The Monarch acts on advice of the ministers. He can summon and dissolve the ‘Cortes Generales’.
The Monarchs position is rather ceremonial
The head of Government is the president of the government; he is the first minister and formally referred to as Prime Minister by English-speaking nations. He is nominated as a candidate by the Monarch and elected by the Congress of Deputies. Since the Prime Minister commands the confidence of the Congress of Duties, in practice he will usually be the leader of the largest part in this Congress.
Since the Monarch has to act on advice of his ministers, the Prime Minister is effectively speaking the country’s chief executive. The Prime Minister and his cabinet hold responsibility to the Monarch.

The judiciary branch practice justice on behalf of the Monarch. The highest court is the Supreme Court of Spain, it has jurisdiction in all Spanish territories, in which it is also superior. This supremacy is not of appliance in constitutional matters. Constitutional matters are under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court.

In the current paragraph Spain will be compared to Germany, the key-marks of co-operative federalism will be compared.
Most of the competences of the autonomous communities are shared, legislation is made by the central government and the autonomous communities are to implement these, taxes are centralized with very less fiscal responsibility for the states, the representation of the states in the central legislature is less than the German states, but it is present because of the proportional representative system and there is a strong need for co-operation.

To conclude it can be said that Spain is comparable to Germany, since most of the points of comparison had similarities with each other. When the points of comparison are applied cumulatively, the point of taxes cannot be called similar to Germany.
For the answer to the subject question, namely ‘to what extent can Spain be called federal when compared with German federalism? this cumulative is not needed. So then, Spain can be called similarly federal when compared to Germany, since four out of the five comparison points showed similarities.
However, this conclusion is to be regarded with care, since it rationalized from a very restrictive point of few, namely a certain part of federalism in Germany. The paper illustrates how a conclusion can be drawn whilst the outcome could have been completely different when the comparison had been based on slightly different points.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Art. 20(1) Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 2 ]. Art. 79 (3) Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 3 ]. Art. 50 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 4 ]. Art. 51 (1) Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 5 ]. Art. 51 (2) and (3) Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 6 ]. Art. 62 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 7 ]. Art. 67 and 68 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 8 ]. Art. 54 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 9 ]. Art. 38 (1) Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 10 ]. Art.70 (1) Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 11 ]. Art. 71 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 12 ]. Ar.t 70 to 82 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 13 ]. Art. 72 and 74 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 14 ]. Art. 31 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 15 ]. Art. 83 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 16 ]. Art. 76 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 17 ]. Art. 62 to 69 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 18 ]. Art. 92 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 19 ]. Art. 94(1) and 95 (2) Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 20 ]. Art. 107 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
[ 21 ]. Art. 137 Spanish Constitution.
[ 22 ]. Art. 143 Spanish Constitution.
[ 23 ]. Art. 144 Spanish Constitution.
[ 24 ]. Art.137 Spanish Constitution.
[ 25 ]. Art. 148 Spanish Constitution.
[ 26 ]. Art.69 (5) Spanish Constitution.
[ 27 ]. Art. 61 Local Regime Framework Act.
[ 28 ]. Art.56 Spanish Constitution.
[ 29 ]. Art.62 (h) Spanish Constitution.
[ 30 ]. Ar.99 Spanish Constitution.
[ 31 ]. Art. 99 (2) Spanish Constitution.
[ 32 ]. Art, 62 Spanish Constitution.
[ 33 ]. http://countrystudies.us/spain/76.htm
[ 34 ]. http://ec.europa.eu/translation/english/guidelines/documents/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf
[ 35 ]. Art.62 (d) Spanish Constitution.