Federated States

A federated state is a country whose constitution divides sovereignty between a national (federal) government and a set of constituent units — variously called states, provinces, cantons, Länder, republics, or emirates. Unlike a unitary state, where subnational authorities derive their powers from the centre and can be reorganized or abolished by it, the constituent units of a federation hold powers guaranteed by the constitution itself and typically cannot be unilaterally stripped of them.

Federated states usually share several features:

• A written constitution allocating competences between the federal centre and the units (e.g., defence and foreign affairs at the centre; education or policing often at the unit level).
• A bicameral legislature in which one chamber represents the units directly — the U.S. Senate, the German Bundesrat, the Swiss Council of States, the Indian Rajya Sabha.
• A supreme or constitutional court empowered to adjudicate disputes between levels of government.
• Some degree of fiscal federalism, with revenue and spending shared or transferred between tiers.

Prominent examples include the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Russia, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. The Federated States of Micronesia uses the term in its formal name. The European Union is not a federated state; it is a supranational union of sovereign members, though it exhibits some federal characteristics.

Federations differ widely in centralization. Germany's kooperativer Föderalismus emphasizes joint policymaking; Switzerland leans toward strong cantonal autonomy and direct democracy; Belgium's federation, restructured by successive reforms from 1970 through 1993, is organized around linguistic communities and territorial regions.

In international relations, only the federal government holds international legal personality and treaty-making power, though some federations (notably Belgium and, in limited domains, the German Länder or Canadian provinces) permit constituent units to conclude agreements within their competences. For Model UN and diplomatic purposes, it is the federal state — not its components — that occupies a UN seat and votes in the General Assembly.