re: Federal country
Black or white? That's what adolescents believe.
Luckily, universities expand our views.
LOL! Pretty much it in a nutshell. Of course, my definition of "expand" as used in this sentence might be a bit different from yours. For example, fog is an "expanded" form of water, or ice.
From your link:
Federal government: Jurisdiction over Foreign affairs, development aid, defence/Military, police, economy, social welfare, security (including pensions, health care, social aid and employment controls), transport (including railways and air transport), energy, telecommunications, scientific research (partially), limited competencies in education and culture, as well as strict control over taxation by regional authorities; the federal government controls more than 90 percent of all taxation.
Sounds pretty centralized to me, but I suppose as you say what they have now is an improvement over what it was.