Question

How does a federal form of government differ from a confederacy and from a unitary government?

Answer 1

There are mainly three approaches to organize power among national (or central) and state (regional or local) governments namely: Federal, Confederal and Unitary. These can be distinguished as below:

Federation: Authority is divided between national and state governments. Thus under the federal system, and each level of government - national government and the state governments, is independent and has its own powers and responsibilities

Confederation: A political system wherein the states or regional governments retain ultimate authority with exception to certain powers that they expressly delegate to a central government. Thus in a confederation, the wide majority of power lies with the states.

Unitary: These are categorised as lower-level governmental entities that are created by and dependent on the national government. In a unitary system all power lies with the national government.