federal republic
Elected, distributed governance
A federal republic is a form of government combining two principles: power is divided between a central government and regional units (states, provinces, or cantons), and citizens elect representatives rather than being ruled by monarchs or dictators.
The United States, Germany, and Brazil are federal republics.
The federal structure allows regional autonomy while the republican framework ensures popular sovereignty: The framers designed a federal republic to balance national unity with states' rights.
- concurrent powersPowers held by multiple governments
- constitutionInherent physical or structural makeup
- constitutional lawLegal principles from founding documents
- founding fathersMale originators of institutions
- GermanyCentral European nation
subsidiarity · United States · vote · dual sovereignty · India · popular sovereignty · bicameralism · Bundesrat · representative democracy · decentralization · legislature · supreme court · enumerated powers · state rights · Australia · power sharing · central authority · checks and balances
- governmentgovernment, ministries, legislature, judiciary, executive branch
- governmentsdemocracy, monarchy, autocracy, oligarchy, tyranny
- German PoliticsBundesrat, CSU, Nazi Party, Greens, chancellor
- Cold War GermanyBerlin Wall, East Germany, West Germany, German reunification, divided Germany
- European PoliticsEU, European Parliament, European Union, EU Commission, eurozone
- political entitiesnation, state, country, kingdom, nation-state
federal republiccentralized government
Authority held by one body
federal republicabsolute monarchy
Unrestricted single-ruler government
hereditary monarchy · monarchy · kingdom · constitutional monarchy · empire
federal republicdictatorship
Unchecked single-ruler government
autocracy · authoritarian regime · one-party state · military junta · police state