Identify and explain some differences between a federal and a unitary constitution?

A unitary constitution is a constitution in which the power is concentrated in the form of a central government which has ultimate power and authority over its jurisdiction. A federal constitution, however, splits the distribution of power between a central government and other smaller governments. In a federal constitution, both the national government and the smaller governments have exclusive powers which cannot be changed by the other, there are specific powers like taxation and law making that are distributed to the smaller governemnt and national government at varying levels. The most famous example of a country using a Federal Constitution is the United States of America. One of the most famous examples of a unitary state, however, is the United Kingdom. As the Government in London has supreme authority over England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Even though there are devolved states within the United Kingdom (e.g. The Scottish Parliament, Welsh Parliament), Westminster has the power to reclaim all their powers, if they want: whilst this arguably could be classed as a quasi-federal state, ultimately because of the ability Westminster has to retract all powers from devolved states, it follows the characteristics of a unitary system.