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A federal republic is afederation ofstates with arepublic as a 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 amonarch or anyhereditary aristocracy.
In a federal republic, adivision of powers exists between the federal government and the governments 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 aunitary 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 writtenconstitutional document. The political differences between a federal republic and otherfederal states, especiallyfederal monarchies under aparliamentary 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 withchecks and balances; however, some federal monarchies, such as theUnited 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.
| Country | Official name andstyle | 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 | |
 Beiyang 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[c] | 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[d] | 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 |
