Constitutional Problems of Territorial Decentralization in Federal and Centralized States

The creating of federal units at the constitutional level is primarily necessary to ensure not only their independence but also their existence. If the constitution either provides for the creating of federal units or if it spells out a specific procedure for the creation thereof, this means a guarantee for the federal units within the framework of the existing constitutional order. In the constitutional system of Yugoslavia, based on the constitution promulgated in 1946, there is a formulation not often encountered – that the federation is defined as an ”open federation“. As far as legislative competences are concerned one notes in the applied field a considerable span from minimally legislatively independent federal units to units enjoying in legislative function optimal independence. The constitutional system of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as declared by the 1974 Constitution, does not follow current state theory of the state, according to which the federation should have the competence over competences.