1.6 Change in Power and Authority

1.6 Change in Power and Authority

Power rarely stays in one place forever. A government may pull authority toward the national capital, transfer responsibilities to provinces or states, or lose control through rebellion, revolution, or external pressure. Change in power and authority refers to shifts in who can make, enforce, and sustain binding political decisions.

Investigative question: When authority moves between national and regional governments—or changes hands entirely—does the state become more stable, more responsive, or more vulnerable?

The centralization–decentralization spectrum

Centralization means that political authority is concentrated primarily in the national government. National officials set broad policies and may control the resources, laws, and institutions that regional governments need in order to act. Decentralization means that authority is distributed downward to regional or local governments, which gain greater responsibility for policy making.

The degree of centralization affects both government authority and policy making. A centralized government may implement a nationwide policy quickly, while a decentralized government may allow different regions to respond to distinct languages, religions, ethnic identities, or economic conditions.

A useful way to visualize the relationship is:

national government controls most decisions → centralization → uniform policy and faster coordination

national and regional governments share decisions → decentralization → regional adaptation and divided authority

Unitary and federal systems

A unitary system is one in which power rests primarily at the national level. Regional governments may exist, but they do not possess constitutionally guaranteed power; the national government can create, reorganize, or limit their authority.

The United Kingdom illustrates a centralized unitary system. The central government retains the greatest authority, while regional institutions receive powers from it. Those powers may be politically important, but they are granted rather than constitutionally guaranteed in the same way that regional powers are protected in a federal system.

A federal system divides power between national and regional governments. The constitution guarantees at least some regional authority, so the national government cannot simply abolish or reclaim every regional responsibility through ordinary political action.

Nigeria uses federalism partly to address challenges created by social cleavages. Its division of authority allows regional governments to respond more directly to local communities, including communities shaped by important religious differences. Federal arrangements therefore can provide recognition and political space for groups that might resist complete control from the national government.

Question	Unitary system	Federal system
Where is authority concentrated?	Primarily at the national level	Divided between national and regional levels
Are regional powers constitutionally guaranteed?	No	Yes
Example emphasized here	United Kingdom	Nigeria
Possible advantage	Coordinated, uniform policy	Regional adaptation and representation
Possible challenge	Regional groups may feel overcontrolled	Conflicting national and regional policies

Worked comparison: why the distinction matters

Imagine that two countries contain sharp religious and regional differences. Country A uses a unitary system: the national government designs one education policy and gives regional offices authority to administer it. Country B uses a federal system: regional governments possess constitutionally protected responsibility for education and can adapt policy to local conditions.

The comparison does not prove that Country B will be more democratic or stable. It shows how the distribution of power can address a social cleavage differently. Nigeria’s federal structure can give distinct communities meaningful regional authority; by contrast, describing the United Kingdom’s unitary system as eliminating social cleavages would confuse centralized coordination with automatic social unity.

Exam-ready distinction: Explain the governmental structure first, then connect it to the specific challenge. “Federalism helps Nigeria address religious differences because regional governments have codified authority to respond to different communities” is stronger than merely saying that federalism “creates representation.”

Peaceful and violent political change

Changes in power and authority may occur peacefully or violently. Peaceful change can result from elections, constitutional amendments, negotiated settlements, devolution, or legislation that transfers responsibilities to regional governments. Violent change can result from coups, revolutions, civil wars, separatist movements, or the use of force by a regime to preserve sovereignty.

Sovereignty is the state’s supreme authority to govern within its territory and maintain independence from outside interference. Political regimes use different methods to maintain sovereignty, including legal institutions, security forces, ideological appeals, control of territory, and negotiation with internal groups. A regime may therefore preserve the state through accommodation—or through coercion.

Misconception check

Misconception: “Federal means weak national government, and unitary means no regional government.” Neither statement is correct. Federalism concerns constitutionally divided authority, not the total strength of the national government; unitary states can have powerful regional institutions, but their authority ultimately depends on the national government.

CED traceability and skill application

Learning Objective PAU-2.A: Explain how power and authority are distributed and how they are affected by internal and external factors. Essential Knowledge PAU-2.A.1 and PAU-2.A.2 support analysis of how the distribution of power affects regime stability and how centralization or decentralization can change over time in response to internal and external actors, including ethnic cleavages.

This topic is assessed through Practice 1: Concept Application, when you define or apply unitary, federal, centralization, decentralization, or sovereignty; Practice 2: Country Comparison, when you connect a structural difference to the United Kingdom and Nigeria; and Practice 5: Argumentation, when you defend a claim about whether a distribution of power reduces conflict or improves policy making. In a source-based task, Practice 4: Source Analysis may require you to explain how an author’s perspective on regional authority reflects a political system.

Retrieval check

A country permits provinces to make education policy, but the national legislature can abolish those powers whenever it chooses. Is the system federal or unitary? Unitary: regional authority exists, but it is not constitutionally guaranteed. Now add the reason Nigeria’s federal structure can matter politically: it can give groups divided by social cleavages protected regional space to govern themselves.