Federation

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A federation (also a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision, neither by the component states nor the federal political body.^{[citation needed]}

Alternatively, a federation is a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided between a central authority and a number of constituent regions so that each region retains some degree of control over its internal affairs.^[1]

It is often argued that federal states where the central government has overriding powers are not truly federal states. For example, such overriding powers may include: the constitutional authority to suspend a constituent state's government by invoking gross mismanagement or civil unrest, or to adopt national legislation that overrides or infringes on the constituent states' powers by invoking the central government's constitutional authority to ensure "peace and good government" or to implement obligations contracted under an international treaty.^{[citation needed]}

The governmental or constitutional structure found in a federation is considered to be federalist, or to be an example of federalism. It can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state. France and Japan, for example, have been unitary for many centuries. The

India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Malaysia (then Federation of Malaya) became federations on or shortly before becoming independent from the British Empire.

In some recent cases, federations have been instituted as a measure to handle ethnic conflict within a state, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq since 2005 as well as Somalia since 2012

With the

Currently, or as of 2023, there are 27 federations or federal countries.^{[citation needed]}

Federations and other forms of state

Federations

The component states are in some sense sovereign, insofar as certain powers are reserved to them that may not be exercised by the central government. However, a federation is more than a mere loose alliance of independent states. The component states of a federation usually possess no powers in relation to foreign policy and so enjoy no independent status under international law. However, German Länder have that power,^[2] which is beginning to be exercised on a European level.

Some federations are called

A unitary state is sometimes one with only a single, centralized, national tier of government. However, unitary states often also include one or more self-governing regions. The difference between a federation and this kind of unitary state is that in a unitary state the autonomous status of self-governing regions exists by the sufferance of the central government, and may be unilaterally revoked. While it is common for a federation to be brought into being by agreement between a number of formally independent states, in a unitary state self-governing regions are often created through a process of devolution, where a formerly centralized state agrees to grant autonomy to a region that was previously entirely subordinate. Thus, federations are often established voluntarily from "below" whereas devolution grants self-government from "above".

Confederation

A confederation, in modern political terms, is usually limited to a permanent union of sovereign states for common action in relation to other states.^[4] The closest entity in the world to a confederation at this time is the European Union. While the word confederation was officially used when the Canadian federal system was established in 1867, the term refers only to the process and not the resulting state since Canadian provinces are not sovereign and do not claim to be. In the case of Switzerland, while the country is still known officially as the Swiss Confederation, this is now a misnomer since the Swiss cantons lost their sovereign status in 1848.^[5]

In Belgium, however, the opposite movement is underway.^[6] Belgium was founded as a centralized state, after the French model, but has gradually been reformed into a federal state by consecutive constitutional reforms since the 1970s. Moreover, although nominally called a federal state, the country's structure already has a number of confederational traits. At present, there is a growing movement to transform the existing federal state into a looser confederation with two or three constitutive states and/or two special regions.^[7]

A confederation is most likely to feature three differences when contrasted with a federation: (1) No real direct powers: many confederal decisions are externalized by member-state legislation; (2) Decisions on day-to-day-matters are not taken by simple majority but by special majorities or even by consensus or unanimity (veto for every member); (3) Changes of the constitution, usually a treaty, require unanimity.

Over time these terms acquired distinct connotations leading to the present difference in definition. An example of this is the United States under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles established a national government under what today would be defined as a federal system (albeit with a comparatively weaker federal government). However, Canadians, designed with a stronger central government than the US in the wake of the Civil War of the latter, use the term "Confederation" to refer to the formation or joining, not the structure, of Canada. Legal reforms, court rulings, and political compromises have decentralized Canada in practice since its formation in 1867.

Empire

An

A federation differs from a devolved state, such as Indonesia and the United Kingdom, because, in a devolved state, the central government can revoke the independence of the subunits (Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly in the case of the United Kingdom) without changing the constitution. In some cases, such as the autonomous communities of Spain, devolution has led to federation in all but name, or "federation without federalism".^[9]

Crown dependencies

The relation between the

The distinction between a federation and a unitary state is often quite ambiguous. A unitary state may closely resemble a federation in structure and, while a central government may possess the theoretical right to revoke the autonomy of a self-governing region, it may be politically difficult for it to do so in practice. The self-governing regions of some unitary states also often enjoy greater autonomy than those of some federations. For these reasons, it is sometimes argued that some modern unitary states are de facto federations.[10]

De facto federations, or quasi-federations, are often termed "regional states".

Spain

Although South Africa bears some elements of a federal system, such as the allocation of certain powers to provinces, some nevertheless argue that it is functionally a unitary state.^[17] On the other hand, if federation is defined as the constitutional entrenchment of the powers of subcentral units (provinces, etc.) that is not unilaterally changeable or revocable by the central authority, South Africa does qualify, formally, as a federal state.^[18]

European Union

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The European Union (EU) is a sui generis political union or confederation (the assemblage of societies or an association of two or more states into one state).^[19] Robert Schuman, the initiator of the European Community system, wrote that a transnational Community like the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community lay midway between an association of States where they retained complete independence and a federation leading to a fusion of States in a super-state.^[20] The Founding Fathers of the European Union wrote the Europe Declaration (Charter of the Community) at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 18 April 1951 saying that Europe should be organized on a transnational foundation. They envisaged a structure quite different from a federation called the European Political Community.^{[citation needed]}

The EU is a three-pillar structure of the original supranational

By the signature of this Treaty, the participating Parties give proof of their determination to create the first supranational institution and that thus they are laying the true foundation of an organized Europe. This Europe remains open to all nations. We profoundly hope that other nations will join us in our common endeavor.

— Europe Declaration, signed by Konrad Adenauer (West Germany), Paul van Zeeland, Joseph Meurice (Belgium) Robert Schuman (France) Count Sforza (Italy) Joseph Bech (Luxembourg) and Dirk Stikker, J. R. M. van den Brink (The Netherlands).^[22]

Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism.

— European Constitutionalism Beyond the State. Edited with Marlene Wind (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003) page 23, Joseph H. H. Weiler

Those uncomfortable using the "F" word in the EU context should feel free to refer to it as a quasi-federal or federal-like system. Nevertheless, for the purposes of the analysis here, the EU has the necessary attributes of a federal system. It is striking that while many scholars of the EU continue to resist analyzing it as a federation, most contemporary students of federalism view the EU as a federal system. (See, for instance, Bednar, Filippov et al., McKay, Kelemen, Defigueido and Weingast)

— R. Daniel Kelemen

A more nuanced view has been given by the German Constitutional Court.^[23] Here the EU is defined as 'an association of sovereign national states (Staatenverbund)'.^[24] With this view, the European Union resembles more of a confederation.

People's Republic of China

Constitutionally, the power vested in the

Constitutionally a unitary state, the political system in Myanmar bears many elements of federalism. Each administrative division has its own cabinets and chief ministers, making it more like a federation rather than a unitary state.

Wallis and Futuna

The

Certain forms of political and constitutional dispute are common to federations. One issue is that the exact division of power and responsibility between federal and regional governments is often a source of controversy. Often, as is the case with the United States, such conflicts are resolved through the judicial system, which delimits the powers of federal and local governments. The relationship between federal and local courts varies from nation to nation and can be a controversial and complex issue in itself.

Another common issue in federal systems is the conflict between regional and national interests, or between the interests and aspirations of different ethnic groups. In some federations the entire jurisdiction is relatively homogeneous, and each constituent state resembles a miniature version of the whole; this is known as 'congruent federalism'. On the other hand, incongruent federalism exists where different states or regions possess distinct ethnic groups.

The ability of a federal government to create national institutions that can mediate differences that arise because of linguistic, ethnic, religious, or other regional differences is an important challenge. The inability to meet this challenge may lead to the secession of parts of a federation or to civil war, as occurred in the United States (southern states sought to protect the institution of slavery while northern states opposed it, with a catalysis occurring in the then–

The federal government is the common government of a national or supranational federation. A federal government may have distinct powers at various levels authorized or delegated to it by its member states. The structure of federal governments varies. Based on a broad definition of a basic federalism, there are two or more levels of government that exist within an established territory and govern through common institutions with overlapping or shared powers as prescribed by a constitution.

The federal government is the government at the level of the sovereign state. Usual responsibilities of this level of government are maintaining

[26]

Contemporary

There are 27 federations in the world, with 6 each in Africa, Asia and Europe, 4 in North America, 3 in South America and 2 in Oceania.

Current federations

Year est.	Federation	Type [t 1]	Structure	Top-level subdivisions (federated and other)	Major federated units	Minor units[t 2] (federated or other)
1853	Argentine Republic	R	Presidential	Provinces of Argentina	23 provinces	1 autonomous city
1901	Commonwealth of Australia	M	Parliamentary	States and territories of Australia	6 states	3 internal territories (of which 2 are self-governing) and 7 external territories
1920	Republic of Austria	R	Parliamentary	States of Austria	9 states (Länder or Bundesländer) incl. the city-state of Vienna
1993	Kingdom of Belgium	M	Parliamentary	Divisions of Belgium	3 communities, 3 regions	3 communitarian commissions
1995	Bosnia and Herzegovina	R	Parliamentary	Divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina	2 entities, one of which is itself a federation of 10 cantons	1 district[t 3]
1889	Federative Republic of Brazil	R	Presidential	Federative units of Brazil	27 states)[t 4]
1867	Canada	M	Parliamentary	Provinces and territories of Canada	10 provinces	3 territories
1995	Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia	R	Parliamentary	Regions and chartered cities of Ethiopia	11 regions	2 chartered cities
1949	Federal Republic of Germany	R	Parliamentary	States of Germany	16 states (Länder or Bundesländer) incl. the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen
1947[t 5]	Republic of India	R	Parliamentary	States and union territories of India	28 states	8 national capital territory
2005	Republic of Iraq	R	Parliamentary	Governorates of Iraq	19 provinces (governorates)
1963	Malaysia	M	Parliamentary	States of Malaysia	13 states	3 federal territories
1824	United Mexican States	R	Presidential	States of Mexico	32 federal entities, which are 31 states and its capital Mexico City
1979	Federated States of Micronesia	R	Presidential	Administrative divisions of Micronesia	4 states
2015	Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal	R	Parliamentary	Provinces of Nepal	7 provinces
1960[t 6]	Federal Republic of Nigeria	R	Presidential	Subdivisions of Nigeria	36 states	1 federal capital territory
1947[t 7]	Islamic Republic of Pakistan	R	Parliamentary	Provinces and territories of Pakistan	4 provinces	2 autonomous territories and 1 federal capital territory
1992[t 8]	Russian Federation	R	Semi-presidential	Federal subjects of Russia	46 oblasts, 22 republics, 9 krais, 4 autonomous okrugs, 3 federal-level cities, 1 autonomous oblast[27][28]
1983	Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis	M	Parliamentary	The islands St. Kitts and Nevis	1 federal unit (the island of Nevis)	The island of Saint Kitts (directly administered by the federal government)
2012	Federal Republic of Somalia	R	Parliamentary	Federal Member States of Somalia	5 States[29]
2011	Republic of South Sudan	R	Presidential	States of South Sudan	10 states	3 administrative areas (which one of them has special administrative status)
1956	Republic of the Sudan	R	Military junta	States of Sudan	18 states
1848	Swiss Confederation	R	Directorial	Cantons of Switzerland	26 cantons[t 9]
1971	United Arab Emirates	M	Semi-constitutional monarchy	Emirates of the UAE	7 emirates
1776[t 10]	United States of America	R	Presidential	US states and territories	50 states	1 federal district; 16 territories[t 11]
1863	Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela	R	Presidential	States of Venezuela	23 states	1 federal district, 1 federal dependency