Provinces of Selucia

In Selucia, a **Province** (Selucian: *Provincia*) is a first-level political and administrative division, created with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy of the regions that make up Selucia.

Selucia is not a federation, but a highly decentralized unitary state. While sovereignty is vested in the nation as a whole, represented in the central institutions of government, the nation has asymmetrically devolved power to the provinces, which, in turn, exercise their right to self-government within the limits set forth in the constitution and their autonomous statutes. Some scholars have referred to the resulting system as a federal system in all but name, or a "federation without federalism". There are 5 Provinces. Many important powers, including immigration or housing policies, have been devolved to the second-level administrative divisions, that is the municipalities of Selucia.

The Provinces are governed according to the constitution and their own organic laws known as Statutes of the Provinces, which contain all the competences that they assume.

## History

### Background

Selucia is a diverse country made up of several different regions with varying economic and social structures, as well as different historical, political and cultural traditions. While the entire Selucian territory was united with the creation of the First Selucian Republic this was not a process of national homogenization or amalgamation. The constituent territories retained much of their former institutional existence, including limited legislative, judicial or fiscal autonomy. These territories also exhibited a variety of local customs, laws, languages and currencies.

### Current state of affairs

#### Tensions within the system

Peripheral nationalism continues to play a role, though currently not big enough, in Selucian politics. Some peripheral nationalists view that there is a vanishing practical distinction between the terms "nationalities" and "provinces", as more competences are transferred to all communities in roughly the same degree and as other communities have chosen to identify themselves as "nationalities". Many in Insularia and Marestella view their communities as "nations", not just "nationalities", and Selucia as a "plurinational state" or a "nation of nations", and they have made demands for further devolution or secession.

Insularia has threatened the central government with declaring the independence of the territory, especially under the ruling of the far-right in the central government, as the regional population is largely identified as progressist and federalist.

### Institutional organization

All provinces have a parliamentary system based on a division of powers comprising:

* A regional Senate, whose members are elected by universal suffrage according to a system of proportional representation, in which all areas that integrate the territory are fairly represented, and where regional elections are celebrated at the same time as national ones, being the regional results of the national ones the constitution of the regional senates.
* A Council of Government, with executive and administrative powers, headed by a Praetor, being the candidate of the most voted party in the regional elections—this system leads sometimes with a regional government with no majority in the regional senate.—
* A High Court of Justice, hierarchically under the Supreme Court of Selucia

The majority of the communities have approved regional electoral laws within the limits set up by the laws for the entire country. Despite minor differences, all communities use proportional representation; all members of regional parliaments are elected for four-year terms.

### Subdivisions

Each Province is divided in four districts, which take the name from their regional capitals.

**Districts of each province**
 Insularia
 Marestella
 Occidentria
 Oriensos

### Competences of the provincial governments

The competences of the province are not homogeneous. Broadly the competences are divided into "Exclusive", "Shared", and "Executive" ("partial"). In some cases, the region may have exclusive responsibility for the administration of a policy area but may only have executive (i. e., carries out) powers as far as the policy itself is concerned, meaning it must enforce policy and laws decided at the national level.