Autonomous communities of Spain

Spain consists of seventeen autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas), in turn divided in fifty provinces (provincias) and two african autonomous cities (Ceuta and Melilla).

Nationalism and separatism played a big part in the Spanish transition[?]. To appease these forces, the development of the Spanish Constitution of 1978[?] establishes a highly decentralized[?] State comparing with the previous Francoist regime. While not forming a federation or confederation, Spanish regions are more powerful than most in Europe. The Constitution distinguishes "historic" or "fast-track" communities (Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia) and the "slow-track" rest. The historic ones have received initially more functions.

The distribution of competences is different for every community, collected in the autonomy statuses. For example, the Basque Country has a full-range police force (Ertzaintza[?]) of their own. Other communities have a limited-bailiwick one or none at all. Another example: The Basque Country and Navarre collect taxes and agree with the Spanish government their total quota. The rest receive according to the transferred functions.

There has been a tendence for "slow-track" communities to aspire to the function range of their elder. Even in communities without a separatist tradition, the local branches of parties fight for more power and budgets. This was dubbed the café para todos[?] ("coffee for everybody") policy. Current points of disagreement are tax collection and representation at institutions of the European Union.

The Spanish Constitution of 1931[?] tried to give autonomy to regions but the Spanish war[?] crushed this experiment.

The communities are:

• Andalucía (English Andalusia), capital Seville
  • Almería (province)
  • Cádiz (province)
  • Córdoba (province)
  • Granada (province)
  • Huelva (province)
  • Jaén (province)
  • Málaga (province)
  • Sevilla (province)
• Aragón (autonomous community), capital Zaragoza
  • Huesca (province)
  • Teruel (province)
  • Zaragoza (province)
• Asturias, capital Oviedo.It is a uni-province community
• Cantabria (autonomous community), capital Santander.It is a uni-province community
• Catalunya (Spanish Cataluña, English Catalonia), capital Barcelona
  • Barcelona (province)
  • Girona (province) (Spanish Gerona)
  • Lleida (province) (Spanish Lérida)
  • Tarragona (province)
• Castilla-La Mancha, capital Toledo
  • Albacete (province)
  • Ciudad Real (province)
  • Cuenca (province)
  • Guadalajara (province)
  • Toledo (province)
• Castilla-León, capital Valladolid
  • Ávila (province)
  • Burgos (province)
  • León (province)
  • Palencia (province)
  • Salamanca (province)
  • Segovia (province)
  • Soria (province)
  • Valladolid (province)
  • Zamora (province)
• Comunidad Valenciana (Valencian Comunitat Valenciana), capital Valencia (Valencian València)
  • Alicante (province) (Valencian Alacant)
  • Castellón (province) (Valencian Castelló)
  • Valencia (province) (Valencian València)
• Extremadura, capital Mérida
  • Badajoz (province)
  • Cáceres (province)
• Galicia, capital Santiago de Compostela
  • A Coruña (province) (Spanish La Coruña, English Corunna[?])
  • Lugo (province)
  • Ourense (province) (Spanish Orense)
  • Pontevedra (province)
• Illes Balears (autonomous community) (Spanish Islas Baleares, English Balearic Islands), capital Palma de Mallorca.It is a uni-province community.
• Islas Canarias (English Canary Islands), capital Santa Cruz de Tenerife[?]
  • Las Palmas (province)
  • Santa Cruz de Tenerife (province)
• La Rioja (autonomous community), capital Logroño[?].It is a uni-province community
• Murcia (autonomous community), capital Murcia. It is a uni-province community
• Madrid (autonomous community), capital Madrid (of the community and of Spain).It is a uni-province community
• Navarra (English Navarre).It is a uni-province community.Capital Pamplona (Basque Iruña)
• País Vasco (Basque Euskadi, English Basque Country), capital Vitoria (Basque Gasteiz)
  • Álava (province) (Basque Araba)
  • Guipúzcoa (province) (Basque Gipuzkoa)
  • Vizcaya (province) (Basque Bizkaia, English Biscay)
• Autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

The map is stable, though some minorities claim separate communities for León, Orihuela and Álava.

There are five places of sovereignty (plazas de soberanía) near Morocco, under direct Spanish administration:

• Ceuta and Melilla have a status between plain cities ( they can produce regulations to execute Acts, with higher regulation competencies than normal city councils) and autonomous communities (these cities cannot produce autonomous Acts).
• Islas Chafarinas,
• Peñón de Alhucemas,
• and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera