Exercise 1: Applying the Federal-vs-Unitary Test to a Different Real Country — Possible Solution
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This exercise asks for a genuine, independent application, so the
worked example below uses Germany - already covered extensively in
this course (Chapter 8's own real Bundestag MMP example) - as the
chosen country, to demonstrate the method clearly; the same approach
applies to whichever real country the student personally chooses.

Chapter 9's own decisive test, applied consistently throughout the
capstone, asks one specific question: does regional power exist
because the center has chosen it and could reverse it, or is it
genuinely protected by the constitution itself, beyond the reach of
ordinary central legislation? Applying this to Germany: Germany's own
real federal states (the Länder) hold constitutionally guaranteed
powers - including their own real, protected authority over education,
policing, and cultural policy - that the federal government cannot
simply override through ordinary legislation. This authority is
written directly into Germany's own Basic Law (Grundgesetz), not
merely delegated at the federal government's own discretion.

This matches the capstone's own real federal classification criterion
exactly, the same real test that separated the UK's own devolution
(reversible, not constitutionally guaranteed against Parliament) from
genuine federal power. Because German Länder authority is
constitutionally protected rather than centrally reversible, Germany
qualifies as a real federal state under Chapter 9's own decisive test,
consistent with its own real, independently-verified listing among
this course's federal examples in Chapter 9 itself.

ANSWER: Applying Chapter 9's own decisive test to Germany: its Länder
hold real, constitutionally protected authority (via the Basic Law)
that the federal government cannot simply override through ordinary
legislation - this satisfies the federal classification directly,
using the identical real test (protected vs. centrally reversible
power) the capstone applied to distinguish the UK's own unitary
devolution from genuine federalism.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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This applies the capstone's own specific decisive test to a genuinely
different real country using the same reasoning structure, rather than
simply asserting the country's classification without demonstrating
the test being applied.