Spain’s Political, Legal, and Territorial Framework
Topic 1: Spain’s Political, Legal, and Territorial Status
4. Political, Legal, and Territorial Status.
Regarding the political aspect, we begin by noting that the first section of the Constitution contains the great principles of political organization in Spain. As we have seen, Article 1.1 of the Spanish Constitution establishes the formula of a social and democratic state under the rule of law as the current form of government, which has evolved since the early modern state.
Under our Constitution, national sovereignty belongs to the Spanish people, from whom the powers of the state emanate. The sovereign power and original constituent power is held by the people in a unified way, and from it gestate and are ordered the other powers derived from the people.
Political Form: Parliamentary Monarchy
Spain is defined as a parliamentary monarchy. This implies that the Head of State is a Monarch, subject in his or her actions to Parliament. Alongside the Monarch, the Government (governed by Title IV of the Constitution) is led by the President, who effectively holds the executive powers of the state with his or her team of government or cabinet.
The President is accountable to Parliament. Parliament, having granted confidence through the investiture, can remove the President through a motion of censure. This signifies the loss of parliamentary confidence in the President, the cessation of all government members, and the appointment of an alternative candidate as Head of Government.
The organic part must always be at the service of the dogmatic part. Therefore, power only serves the rights and freedoms of man, and only then can we speak of a true democracy.
Legal Organization of the State
Regarding the legal organization of the state, it is necessary to understand the basis of organization and operation of regulatory aspects of the state.
Spain is legally organized as a state under the rule of law.
For instance, the laws of the Valencian Community deploy normative efficiency within the Community. Their territorial scope and effectiveness are limited to the territories that make up the Valencian Community and their scope to the specific legislative powers over their subjects.
As for their relationships and implications within the system of sources, they maintain the same relationships of hierarchy and competition, with the exception of their territorial effect, as other state laws. They are subordinate to the Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy and maintain a competitive relationship with respect to state standards. As to the constitutionality control procedures, procedures of approval, and characteristics, they are equal to the laws of the State.
Statutes of Autonomy
Regarding the statutes of autonomy, they have a dual nature. On the one hand, they are the basic institutional rules of each Autonomous Community. On the other hand, requiring approval by the Parliament Act, they also form part of the block of constitutionality. This means they have two conditions: firstly, they are, like any other law, subject to the constitutional order; and secondly, they provide a benchmark for assessing the constitutionality of other standards.
The Statute of Autonomy, in addition to acting as a parameter of constitutional legitimacy, is a source of a secondary system that cannot be changed either by law independently without the other conditions.
No laws can be considered the same rank as the Constitution, but are subject to it. They are not self-sufficient rules, the only source of criteria of attribution of powers and the interpretation of the same.
Territorial Organization of the State
There is no constitutional provision that establishes a composed state. This means that our Constitution does not build a Spanish state with its political autonomy. It is not possible to find in it a finished and closed model of territorial organization of the state.
The Constitution clearly opted for an open formula comprising two elements: one part concerning the uniqueness of the state, with a single constitution and a single legal order; and another, for the recognition and guarantee of the right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions that make up Spain.
The constitutional provisions have been limited to recognizing a right: the right to autonomy.