Why is Spain so fragmented into autonomous states?
Spain’s fifty provinces (provincias) are grouped into seventeen autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas), in addition to two autonomous cities in Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all (Article II of the Spanish Constitution) Centralism, nationalism, and separatism played an important role in the Spanish transition. For fear that separatism would lead to instability and a dictatorial backlash, a compromise was struck among the moderate political parties taking part in the drafting of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The aim was to appease separatist forces and so disarm the extreme right. A highly decentralized state was established, compared both with the previous Francoist regime and with most modern territorial arr
