Federal republic

Federation of states or territories with a republican form of government

Not to be confused with Federated state.

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Part of the Politics series

Republicanism

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Theoretical works

* Republic (c. 375 BC)
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History

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National variants

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Related topics

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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

[edit]

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 | Friedrich Merz
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 |

Claudia Sheinbaum

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 |

Donald Trump

Venezuela[16] | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela  | States (23) and capital district (1)  | Presidential system |

Nicolás Maduro

## Historical

[edit]

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

## See also

[edit]

* Form of government
* List of republics
* Federal monarchy

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Nominally a federal union of multiple national republics; in practice its government and economy were highly centralized until its final years.
2. ^ 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

[edit]

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.
19. ^ 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

[edit]

* Republic at Merriam-Webster

* 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

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