A federated state (also state, province, region, canton, land, governorate, oblast, emirate, or country) is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation. A federated state does not have international sovereignty since powers are divided between the other federated states and the federal government. Unlike international sovereign states, which have what is often referred to as Westphalian sovereignty (such as exercised by their federal government), federated states operate under their domestic or federal law with relation to the rest of the world.
Importantly, federated states do not have automatic standing as entities of international law. Instead, the federal union (federation) as a single entity is the sovereign state for purposes of international law. Depending on the constitutional structure of a particular federation, a federated state can hold various degrees of legislative, judicial, and administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory and is a form of regional government. A federated state may nonetheless establish offices internationally, for example, to promote trade or tourism, while still operating only within the trade policy or other applicable law of their federation, and their host country. They also may enter into international regional agreements under the laws of their federation and state, such as to protect a cross-border resource like water or other shared matters.
In some cases, a federation is created from the union of political entities that are either independent or dependent territories of another sovereign entity (most commonly a colonial power). In other cases, federated states have been created out of the administrative divisions of previously unitary states. Once a federal constitution is formed, the rules governing the relationship between federal and regional powers become part of the country's constitutional law and not international law.
In countries with federal constitutions, there is a division of power between the central government and the component states. These entities – states, provinces, counties, cantons, Länder, etc. – are partially self-governing and are afforded a degree of constitutionally guaranteed autonomy that varies substantially from one federation to another. Depending on the form the decentralization of powers takes, a federated state's legislative powers may or may not be overruled or vetoed by the federal government. Laws governing the relationship between federal and regional powers can be amended through the national or federal constitution, and, if they exist, state constitutions as well.
In terms of internal politics, federated states can have republican or monarchical forms of government. Those of republican form (federated republics) are usually called states (like states of the US) or republics (like republics in the former USSR).
List of constituents by federation
The federated units in the table below have inherent governmental authority in the federation's constitutional system, while the "other units" are delegated authority by the federal government or are administered directly by it.[citation needed]
| Federation | Federated units | Other units |
|---|---|---|
 Argentina | 23 provinces:
| 1 autonomous city:
|
 Australia | 6 states:
| 3 internal territories:
|
7 external territories:
| ||
 Austria | 9 states:
| |
 Belgium | 3 regions:
| |
3 communities:
| ||
 Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2 entities:
| 1 self-governing district:
|
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is itself a federation of 10 cantons:
| ||
 Brazil | 26 states:
| |
1 federal district:
| ||
 Canada | 10 provinces:
| 3 territories:
|
 Comoros | 3 islands:
| |
 Ethiopia | 12 regions:
| 2 chartered cities:
|
 Germany | 16 states:
| |
 India | 28 states:
| 8 union territories:
|
 Iraq | 18 (official) governorates:
| 1 federal region:
|
 Malaysia | 13 states:
| 3 federal territories:
|
 Mexico | 31 states:
| |
1 autonomous city:
| ||
 Micronesia | 4 states:
| |
 Nepal | 7 provinces:
| |
 Nigeria | 36 states:
| 1 territory:
|
 Pakistan | 4 provinces:
| 2 autonomous territories:
|
| 1 federal territory:
| ||
 Russia | 48 oblasts:
| |
24 republics:
| ||
9 krais:
| ||
4 autonomous okrugs:
| ||
3 federal cities:
| ||
1 autonomous oblast:
| ||
 Saint Kitts and Nevis | 1 autonomous island:
| Saint Kitts:
|
 Somalia | 6 federal member states:
| |
 South Sudan | 10 states:
| 3 administrative areas:
|
 Sudan | 18 states:
| 1 special administrative status area:
|
 Switzerland | 26 cantons:
|
A federated state also state province region canton land governorate oblast emirate or country is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation A federated state does not have international sovereignty since powers are divided between the other federated states and the federal government Unlike international sovereign states which have what is often referred to as Westphalian sovereignty such as exercised by their federal government federated states operate under their domestic or federal law with relation to the rest of the world Federated states of various types exist within many of the modern federal states represented in green Importantly federated states do not have automatic standing as entities of international law Instead the federal union federation as a single entity is the sovereign state for purposes of international law Depending on the constitutional structure of a particular federation a federated state can hold various degrees of legislative judicial and administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory and is a form of regional government A federated state may nonetheless establish offices internationally for example to promote trade or tourism while still operating only within the trade policy or other applicable law of their federation and their host country They also may enter into international regional agreements under the laws of their federation and state such as to protect a cross border resource like water or other shared matters In some cases a federation is created from the union of political entities that are either independent or dependent territories of another sovereign entity most commonly a colonial power In other cases federated states have been created out of the administrative divisions of previously unitary states Once a federal constitution is formed the rules governing the relationship between federal and regional powers become part of the country s constitutional law and not international law In countries with federal constitutions there is a division of power between the central government and the component states These entities states provinces counties cantons Lander etc are partially self governing and are afforded a degree of constitutionally guaranteed autonomy that varies substantially from one federation to another Depending on the form the decentralization of powers takes a federated state s legislative powers may or may not be overruled or vetoed by the federal government Laws governing the relationship between federal and regional powers can be amended through the national or federal constitution and if they exist state constitutions as well In terms of internal politics federated states can have republican or monarchical forms of government Those of republican form federated republics are usually called states like states of the US or republics like republics in the former USSR List of constituents by federationThe federated units in the table below have inherent governmental authority in the federation s constitutional system while the other units are delegated authority by the federal government or are administered directly by it citation needed Federation Federated units Other units Argentina 23 provinces Buenos Aires Catamarca Chaco Chubut Cordoba Corrientes Entre Rios Formosa Jujuy La Pampa La Rioja Mendoza Misiones Neuquen Rio Negro Salta San Juan San Luis Santa Cruz Santa Fe Santiago del Estero Tierra del Fuego Tucuman 1 autonomous city Buenos Aires Australia 6 states New South Wales Queensland South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia 3 internal territories Australian Capital Territory Jervis Bay Territory Northern Territory7 external territories Ashmore and Cartier Islands Australian Antarctic Territory Christmas Island Cocos Keeling Islands Coral Sea Islands Territory Heard Island and McDonald Islands Norfolk Island Austria 9 states Vienna Lower Austria Upper Austria Styria Tyrol Carinthia Salzburg Vorarlberg Burgenland Belgium 3 regions Flanders Wallonia Brussels3 communities Flemish French German speaking Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 entities Republika Srpska Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 self governing district Brcko officially condominium of both constituents The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is itself a federation of 10 cantons Una Sana Posavina Tuzla Zenica Doboj Bosnian Podrinje Central Bosnia Herzegovina Neretva West Herzegovina Sarajevo Canton 10 Brazil 26 states Acre Alagoas Amapa Amazonas Bahia Ceara Espirito Santo Goias Maranhao Mato Grosso Mato Grosso do Sul Minas Gerais Para Paraiba Parana Pernambuco Piaui Rio de Janeiro Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Sul Rondonia Roraima Santa Catarina Sao Paulo Sergipe Tocantins1 federal district Distrito Federal Canada 10 provinces Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Nova Scotia Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan 3 territories Northwest Territories Nunavut Yukon Comoros 3 islands Anjouan Grande Comore Moheli Ethiopia 12 regions Afar Amhara Benishangul Gumuz Central Ethiopia Gambela Harari Oromia Sidama Somali South Ethiopia Southwest Tigray 2 chartered cities Addis Ababa Dire Dawa Germany 16 states Baden Wurttemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg Vorpommern North Rhine Westphalia Rhineland Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony Anhalt Schleswig Holstein Thuringia India 28 states Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odisha Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Telangana Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal 8 union territories Andaman and Nicobar Islands Chandigarh Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu National Capital Territory of Delhi Jammu and Kashmir Ladakh Lakshadweep Puducherry Iraq 18 official governorates Al Anbar Erbil Babylon Baghdad Basra Dhi Qar Diyala Dohuk Halabja unofficial Karbala Kirkuk Maysan Muthanna Najaf Nineveh Al Qadisiyyah Saladin Sulaymaniyah Wasit 1 federal region Kurdistan Region overlaps the area of Duhok Erbil and Sulaymaniyah including Halabja governorates Malaysia 13 states Johor Kedah Kelantan Malacca Negeri Sembilan Pahang Penang Perak Perlis Sabah Sarawak Selangor Terengganu 3 federal territories Putrajaya Kuala Lumpur Labuan Mexico 31 states Aguascalientes Baja California Baja California Sur Campeche Chiapas Chihuahua Coahuila Colima Durango Guanajuato Guerrero Hidalgo Jalisco State of Mexico Michoacan Morelos Nayarit Nuevo Leon Oaxaca Puebla Queretaro Quintana Roo San Luis Potosi Sinaloa Sonora Tabasco Tamaulipas Tlaxcala Veracruz Yucatan Zacatecas1 autonomous city Mexico City Micronesia 4 states Chuuk Kosrae Pohnpei Yap Nepal 7 provinces Bagmati Gandaki Karnali Koshi Lumbini Madhesh Sudurpashchim Nigeria 36 states Abia Adamawa Akwa Ibom Anambra Bauchi Bayelsa Benue Borno Cross River Delta Ebonyi Edo Ekiti Enugu Gombe Imo Jigawa Kaduna Kano Katsina Kebbi Kogi Kwara Lagos Nasarawa Niger Ogun Ondo Osun Oyo Plateau Rivers Sokoto Taraba Yobe Zamfara 1 territory Federal Capital Territory Pakistan 4 provinces Balochistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Punjab Sindh 2 autonomous territories Azad Jammu and Kashmir Gilgit Baltistan1 federal territory Islamabad Capital Territory Russia 48 oblasts Amur Arkhangelsk Astrakhan Belgorod Bryansk Chelyabinsk Irkutsk Ivanovo Kaliningrad Kaluga Kemerovo Kirov Kherson Kostroma Kurgan Kursk Leningrad Lipetsk Magadan Moscow Oblast Murmansk Nizhny Novgorod Novgorod Novosibirsk Omsk Orenburg Oryol Penza Pskov Rostov Ryazan Sakhalin Samara Saratov Smolensk Sverdlovsk Tambov Tomsk Tver Tula Tyumen Ulyanovsk Vladimir Volgograd Vologda Voronezh Yaroslavl Zaporozhye24 republics Adygea Altai Republic Bashkortostan Buryatia Chechnya Chuvashia Crimea Dagestan Donetsk Ingushetia Kabardino Balkaria Kalmykia Karachay Cherkessia Karelia Khakassia Komi Luhansk Mari El Mordovia North Ossetia Alania Sakha Tatarstan Tuva Udmurtia9 krais Altai Krai Kamchatka Khabarovsk Krasnodar Krasnoyarsk Perm Primorsky Stavropol Zabaykalsky4 autonomous okrugs Chukotka Khanty Mansi Nenets Yamalo Nenets3 federal cities Moscow Saint Petersburg Sevastopol1 autonomous oblast Jewish Autonomous Oblast Saint Kitts and Nevis 1 autonomous island Nevis Saint Kitts Saint Kitts Somalia 6 federal member states Galmudug Hirshabelle Jubaland Khatumo Puntland South West South Sudan 10 states Central Equatoria Eastern Equatoria Jonglei Lakes Northern Bahr el Ghazal Unity Upper Nile Warrap Western Bahr el Ghazal Western Equatoria 3 administrative areas Abyei Greater Pibor Ruweng Sudan 18 states Blue Nile Central Darfur East Darfur Gezira Kassala Khartoum North Darfur North Kurdufan Northern Al Qadarif Red Sea Sennar South Darfur South Kurdufan River Nile West Darfur West Kurdufan White Nile 1 special administrative status area Abyei Switzerland 26 cantons Aargau Appenzell Ausserrhoden Appenzell Innerrhoden Basel Landschaft Basel Stadt Bern Fribourg img
