Federal republic

A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. At its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means a country that is governed by elected representatives and by an elected leader, such as a president, rather than by a monarch or any hereditary aristocracy.

In a federal republic, a division of powers exists between the federal government and the government of the individual subdivisions. While each federal republic manages this division of powers differently, common matters relating to international affairs and treaties, security and defense, inter-state relations, and monetary policy are usually handled at the federal level, while matters such as infrastructure maintenance and education policy are usually handled at the regional or local level; however, views differ on what issues should be a federal competence, and subdivisions usually have sovereignty in some matters where the federal government does not have jurisdiction. A federal republic is thus best defined in contrast to a unitary republic, whereby the central government has complete sovereignty over all aspects of political life. This more decentralized structure helps to explain the tendency for more populous countries to operate as federal republics.^[1]

Most federal republics codify the division of powers between orders of government in a written constitutional document. The political differences between a federal republic and other federal states, especially federal monarchies under a parliamentary system of government, are largely a matter of legal form rather than political substance, as most federal states are democratic in structure if not practice with checks and balances; however, some federal monarchies, such as the United Arab Emirates, are based upon principles other than democracy.

Federal states primarily contrast with unitary states, where the central government retains many of the powers that are delegated to the subdivisions in federal republics. While there are exceptions, the overall tendency is for federal republics to be larger, more populous, and more internally heterogeneous than unitary states, with such larger size and internal heterogeneity being more manageable in a federal system than in a unitary one.

Contemporary

Country	Official name and style	Administrative divisions	Form of government	Head of state	Head of government
Argentina	Argentine Republic	Provinces (23) and autonomous city (1)	Presidential system	Javier Milei
Austria^[2]	Republic of Austria	States (9)	Parliamentary republic	Alexander Van der Bellen	Karl Nehammer
Bosnia and Herzegovina^[3]	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Entities (2) and self-governing district (1)	Parliamentary republic	Željka Cvijanović Denis Bećirović Željko Komšić	Borjana Krišto
Brazil^[4]	Federative Republic of Brazil	States (26) and federal district (1)	Presidential system	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Comoros	Union of the Comoros	Autonomous islands (3)	Presidential system	Azali Assoumani
Ethiopia^[5]	Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia	Regions (10) and chartered cities (2)	Parliamentary republic	Sahle-Work Zewde	Abiy Ahmed
Germany^[6]	Federal Republic of Germany	States (16)	Parliamentary republic	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	Olaf Scholz
India^[7]	Republic of India	States (28) and union territories (8)	Parliamentary republic	Droupadi Murmu	Narendra Modi
Iraq	Republic of Iraq	Governorates (19)	Parliamentary republic	Abdul Latif Rashid	Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani
Mexico^[8]	United Mexican States	States (31) and autonomous entity (1)	Presidential system	Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Micronesia	Federated States of Micronesia	States (4)	Presidential system	David W. Panuelo
Nepal^[9]	Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal^[10]	Provinces (7)	Parliamentary republic	Ram Chandra Poudel	Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Nigeria^[11]	Federal Republic of Nigeria	States (36) and federal territory (1)	Presidential system	Bola Tinubu
Pakistan^[12]	Islamic Republic of Pakistan	Provinces (4), autonomous territories (2) and federal territory (1)	Parliamentary republic	Asif Ali Zardari	Shehbaz Sharif
Russia^[13]	Russian Federation	Federal subjects (85)	Semi-presidential system	Vladimir Putin	Mikhail Mishustin
Somalia	Federal Republic of Somalia	Federal member states (6)	Parliamentary republic	Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (acting)	Hamza Abdi Barre
South Sudan	Republic of South Sudan	States (10), administrative areas (2) and area with special administrative status (1)	Presidential system	Salva Kiir Mayardit
Sudan	Republic of the Sudan	States (18)	Provisional government	Abdel Fattah al-Burhan	Osman Hussein
Switzerland^[14]	Swiss Confederation	Cantons (26)	Directorial Parliamentary republic	Federal Council (2023): -Alain Berset -Ignazio Cassis -Albert Rösti -Élisabeth Baume-Schneider -Guy Parmelin -Karin Keller-Sutter -Viola Amherd
United States^[15]	United States of America	States (50), federal district (1) and territories (14), nine of which are uninhabited.	Presidential system	Joe Biden
Venezuela^[16]	Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela	States (23) and capital district (1)	Presidential system	Nicolás Maduro

Historical

Country	Official name and style	Period of federal form of government	Administrative divisions
Regency of Algiers^[17]	Regency of Algiers Kingdom of Algiers	1563–1830^[18]	Beyliks
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth	Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae	1569–1795	Provinces and Voivodeships
Dutch Republic	Republic of the Seven United Netherlands	1581–1795	Provinces
Valais	Republic of the Seven Tithings	1613–1798
Gran Colombia	Republic of Colombia	1819–1831
Federal Republic of Central America	Federal Republic of Central American	1823–1838
Granadine Confederation	Granadine Confederation	1858–1863
United States of Colombia	United States of Colombia	1863–1886	States
First Spanish Republic	Spanish Republic	1873-1874
Republic of China	Republic of China	1912–1928	Provinces
Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus	Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus	1917–1922	Republics
Weimar Republic	German Reich	1919–1933	States
East Germany	German Democratic Republic	1949–1990	States
Soviet Union^[a]	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics	1922–1991	Republics
Yugoslavia^[19]	Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1963) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1963–1992)	1945–1992	Republics
Serbia and Montenegro	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2003) State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006)	1992–2006	Constituent republics
Burma	Union of Burma	1948–1962	States
Indonesia	Republic of the United States of Indonesia	1949–1950^[b]	States
Cameroon	Federal Republic of Cameroon	1961–1972
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic^[19]	Czechoslovak Republic (1948–1960) Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1960–1990)	1969–1990	Republics
Czech and Slovak Federative Republic	Czech and Slovak Federative Republic	1990–1992	Republics

Notes

^ Nominally a federal union of multiple national republics; in practice its government and economy were highly centralized until its final years.
^ The states lived on until a final treaty in 1956 in which Republic of South Maluku and the State of Eastern Sumatra agreed to devolve into the Republic of Indonesia.

References

^ Forum of Federations: [1], Schram, Sanford. Handbook of Federal Countries: United States, pp. 373–391, 2005.
^ CIA World Factbook: Austria, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Brazil, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Ethiopia, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Germany, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: India, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Mexico, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Nepal, 14 May 2009
^ "UNTERM". unterm.un.org. Retrieved 2022-07-03.
^ CIA World Factbook: Nigeria, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Pakistan, 14 May 2009
^ "Text of the Russian constitution in English". Constituteproject.org.
^ CIA World Factbook: Switzerland, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: United States, 14 May 2009
^ CIA World Factbook: Venezuela, 14 May 2009
^ Julien, Charles André (1970). History of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco. From the Arab Conquest to 1830. Internet Archive. New York, Praeger. p. 324. ISBN 978-0-7100-6614-5.
^ Kaddache, Mahfoud (2003). L'Algérie des Algériens: de la préhistoire à 1954 [Algeria of the Algerians: from prehistory to 1954] (in French). Paris-Méditerranée. p. 377. ISBN 978-2-84272-166-4.
^ ^a ^b "The CIA World Factbook officially dated October 15, 1991". Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2011-02-05.

External links

Republic at Merriam-Webster

[19] Nominally a federal union of multiple national republics; in practice its government and economy were highly centralized until its final years.

[21] The states lived on until a final treaty in 1956 in which Republic of South Maluku and the State of Eastern Sumatra agreed to devolve into the Republic of Indonesia.

[1] Forum of Federations: [1], Schram, Sanford. Handbook of Federal Countries: United States, pp. 373–391, 2005.

[2] CIA World Factbook: Austria, 14 May 2009

[3] CIA World Factbook: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14 May 2009

[4] CIA World Factbook: Brazil, 14 May 2009

[5] CIA World Factbook: Ethiopia, 14 May 2009

[6] CIA World Factbook: Germany, 14 May 2009

[7] CIA World Factbook: India, 14 May 2009

[8] CIA World Factbook: Mexico, 14 May 2009

[9] CIA World Factbook: Nepal, 14 May 2009

[10] "UNTERM". unterm.un.org. Retrieved 2022-07-03.

[11] CIA World Factbook: Nigeria, 14 May 2009

[12] CIA World Factbook: Pakistan, 14 May 2009

[13] "Text of the Russian constitution in English". Constituteproject.org.

[14] CIA World Factbook: Switzerland, 14 May 2009

[15] CIA World Factbook: United States, 14 May 2009

[16] CIA World Factbook: Venezuela, 14 May 2009

[17] Julien, Charles André (1970). History of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco. From the Arab Conquest to 1830. Internet Archive. New York, Praeger. p. 324. ISBN 978-0-7100-6614-5.

[18] Kaddache, Mahfoud (2003). L'Algérie des Algériens: de la préhistoire à 1954 [Algeria of the Algerians: from prehistory to 1954] (in French). Paris-Méditerranée. p. 377. ISBN 978-2-84272-166-4.

[CIA1991-20] "The CIA World Factbook officially dated October 15, 1991". Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2011-02-05.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[a]

[19]

[b]

v t e Autonomous types of first-tier subdivision administration
Federalism	Asymmetric federalism Confederation Cooperative federalism Corporative federalism Dual federalism Ethnic federalism Federacy Federal monarchy Federal republic Federated state Federation Fiscal federalism Symmetric federalism List of federal countries
Unitary state	Devolution Regional state
Unions	Composite monarchy Dual monarchy Dynastic union Empire Colonial empire Multinational state Personal union Political union Real union Superstate Supranational union Continental union
Subordinacy	Associated state Client state Colony Dependent territory Direct rule Dominion Indirect rule Mandate Protectorate Puppet state Satellite state Trusteeship Tributary state Vassal state
Development	Annexation Cession Detachment Irredentism Military occupation Partition Secession Separatism Territorial dispute
See also	Autonomy Autonomous area Decentralization Hegemony Home rule Stateless nation Subsidiarity Suzerainty Tribal sovereignty