REVISING THE UNITARY VS. FEDERATION CLASSIFICATIONS

Abstract

Over the last four decades, the distinction between unitary and federation systems has become increasingly blurred, as regionalisation and decentralisation have emerged as significant global trends. Regionalisation and decentralisation are responsible for redistribution of power across borders and for strengthening broader society’s subnational capacity and function. Both have indirectly facilitated the expansion of “federalisation processes” within unitary states. As a result, distinguishing between unitary and federated territorial management and power-sharing arrangements is difficult. This “intermediate system” was an apparently novel form of territorial division of power that was never classified as an incomplete federation or an evolutionary type of unitary system. This indicates that the unitary vs. federation dichotomy is becoming incongruous and that the existing classification is no longer relevant. As a result, this article revised the unitary-federal classification based on developments in n = 70 selected countries from 1970 to 2018, as measured by the Regional Authority Index, an annual data series. To classify countries into clusters, the data index was analysed using hybrid clustering analysis while having k-means clustering as the primary analysis. Initially, inferential analysis performed suggested the establishment of four clusters (k = 4). However, clustering together unitary and federated countries resulted in re-clustering, resulting in the formation of five new clusters.