Home > Federation
A federation is a state comprised of a number of self-governing regions (often themselves referred to as states, or provinces) united by a central ( federal) government. In a federation the self-governing status of the component states is constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of the central government. Federations may be multi-ethnic, or cover a large area of territory, although neither is necessarily the case. Federations are often founded on an original agreement between a number of sovereign states. The component states of a federation usually do not have the right to secede unilaterally .1 Federations and other forms of state
Federations usually exhibit a single uniform two-tier structure of government across an entire jurisdiction. Exceptions may occur in which certain parts of the federation are under the federal government's direct sovereignty, as is the case with the autonomous 'territories' of Canada and Australia, and with the US District of Columbia. However it is not characteristic in a federation for small peripheral regions to be self-governing, while a central, much larger 'metropolis' region remains under the direct control of the central government.
A federation is distinct from a state which is composed of self-governing regions but in which the autonomous status of those regions exists at the sufferance of the central government, and may be unilaterally revoked. Such a state is a form of unitary state. Spain and Belgium are examples of unitary states that are superficially federal in structure. A federation is further to be distinguished from:
- A confederation: an entity similar in structure to a federation but with a weaker central government. A confederation may consist of states that are considered entirely sovereign and that retain the right of secession, or a confederation might be a perpetual union that is in iteslf sovereign state.
- An empire: a multi-ethnic state with a political structure established through coercion. It may consist of multiple kingdomIn politics, a country over which a king or queen reigns, is a kingdom see: monarchy. In biological taxonomy (the study of the classification of organisms), the broadest category is a kingdom see: kingdom (biology).s organised together with the high-king designated as an emperorAn emperor is a monarch and sovereign ruler of an empire or any other imperial realm. Emperors are generally recognised to be above kings in honour. They may obtain their position hereditarily, or by force, such as a coup d'etat. Derivation of Emperor The.
The Russian Federation is not a federation in the strictest sense. It consists of the metropolis of RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With proper, which includes the great majority of the population organised into 41 provinces which are directly governed by the national government in MoscowMoscow ( Russian: Moskva capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 878. The city's population is rapidly increasing, with 11. 2 million inhabitants counted in 2004. The city is in the federal district called Central Russia (which is, and a number of small semi-autonomous ethnic enclaves, which are known as Autonomous RepublicsAutonomous Republics are consituent units within the Russian Federation as they were within its predecessor, the former Soviet Union. They are generally comprised of enclaves with a majority of non-Russian ethnicity and named after such ethnicity, such as or Autonomous OblastsAn oblast ( Russian, Ukrainian: ) is a name for the subnational entity of Bulgaria, Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union and the mentioned post-Soviet republics, oblasts are one step below the national level and fu, but which possess very little actual autonomy.
The European Union possesses some of the attributes of a federal state but its central government is much weaker than most federations and it is therefore closer to a confederation or an allianceAn alliance is a treaty between nations, business partners or individuals, for their mutual advantage. Such as NATO, SEATO and the Warsaw Pact. They may be considered a form of confederation. A military alliance is an agreement between two or more countri than a federation. Furthermore, its member states are separate, sovereign entities under international law and, currently at least, possess both de facto and also explicit de jure right of secession.
