Federal republic

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A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. A federation is the central government. The states in a federation also maintain the federation. Usage of the term republic is inconsistent but, as a minimum, it means a state or federation of states that does not have a monarch.

In a federal republic, there is a division of powers between the national ("federal") government, and the government of the individual subdivisions. While each federal republic manages this division of powers differently, national security and defense, monetary policy, and other issues of a "national" scope are handled at the "federal" level while more local issues such as road and infrastructure maintenance and education policy are handled at the local level. In other words, while the federal government has ultimate sovereignty, there is a limited sovereignty granted to the subdivisions, where the federal government does not have jurisdiction. This is in contrast to a unitary republic whereby the national government has complete sovereignty over all aspects of political life, with purely administrative subdivisions, and a confederation whereby the constituent states retain ultimate sovereignty. The form of government is used by many countries around the world.

List of federal republics

Contemporary

Nation	Official Name and Style	Subdivisions	Head of state
Argentina	Argentine Republic	Provinces	President
Austria¹	Republic of Austria	States	Federal President
Bosnia and Herzegovina²	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Entities	Collective Presidency
Brazil³	Federative Republic of Brazil	States	President
Comoros	Union of the Comoros	Autonomous islands	President
Ethiopia⁴	Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia	Regions	President
Germany⁵	Federal Republic of Germany	States	Federal President
India⁶	Republic of India	States	President
Iraq	Republic of Iraq	Regions	President
Mexico⁷	United Mexican States	States	President
Micronesia	Federated States of Micronesia	States	President
Nepal⁸	Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal	Yet to decide by the constituent assembly	President
Nigeria⁹	Federal Republic of Nigeria	States	President
Pakistan¹⁰	Islamic Republic of Pakistan	Provinces and Tribal areas	President
Russia¹¹	Russian Federation	Federal subjects	President
South Sudan	Republic of South Sudan	States	President
Sudan	Republic of the Sudan	States	President
Switzerland¹²	Swiss Confederation	Cantons	Federal Council
United States¹³	United States of America	States	President
Venezuela¹⁴	Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela	States	President

Historic

Federation	Official Name and Style	Period	Subdivisions
Dutch Republic	Republic of the Seven United Netherlands	1581–1795	Provinces
Colombia	Republic of Colombia United States of Colombia	1819-1831 1863–1886	States
Federal Republic of Central America	United Provinces of Central America Federal Republic of Central America	1823–1838
German Empire	German Reich (Second Reich)	1871-1918	States
Germany	German Reich (Weimar Republic)	1919-1933	States
Soviet Union	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics	1922-1991	Republics
Yugoslavia¹⁵	Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	1945-1963 1963-1992	Republics
Serbia and Montenegro	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia State Union of Serbia and Montenegro	1992-2003 2003-2006	Republics
Burma	Union of Burma	1948-1962	States
Indonesia	Republic of the United States of Indonesia	1949-1950^{note 1}	States
Cameroon	Federal Republic of Cameroon	1961-1972
Czechoslovakia¹⁵	Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Czech and Slovak Federative Republic	1969-1990 1990-1993	Socialist Republics