A regional state, or a regionalised unitary state, is a term used to denote a type of state that is formally unitary but where a high degree of political power has been highly decentralised to regional governments. This contrasts with a state organized on principles of federalism (either a federal republic such as the United States, Brazil, or India or a federal monarchy such as Belgium or Malaysia) where the powers of the regions are enshrined in constitutional law. In many cases, the regions are based on long standing cultural or regional divisions. Europe Many regional states exist in Europe because many European states are very old, and their constitutional structures evolved from absolute monarchy and hold that power emanates from the central government. This means that any regional autonomy is theoretically only existent at the sufferance of the central government. However, in practice, there would be enormous popular and political resistance if the central government tried to revoke the autonomy of a region. This can be seen in the opposition to the Spanish government's application of direct rule in Catalonia during and immediately after the Catalan crisis. Catalonia's autonomy has since been restored. Spain One example of a regional state is Spain which is divided into autonomous communities which are autonomous government bodies that exercise a large degree of lawmaking and in some cases tax-setting authority but are officially creations of the central government. They are designed to ensure limited autonomy for the nationalities and regions of Spain such as the Catalans and the Galicians, among others. Many political parties in Spain, especially those expressing one of the various regional nationalisms, have called for the creation of a full federal system in the country, as opposed to the current system, which is often described as "federalism in all but name" or "federation without federalism". Italy Italy is another European regional state, since it is divided into 20 regions that exercise significant authority. Five of the regions (Sicily, Sardinia, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and the Val d'Aosta) are more autonomous than the others. As in Spain, some politicians and political parties in the country, especially those that express regionalist ideology, favor the establishment of a federal system in Italy. Others Europe is the continent with the most regional states. Though Spain and Italy are the most well known for their regional structures, Greece, Ukraine, France and the United Kingdom