A Federation is group of partially independent states, worlds to even whole galaxies, that united under one centralized (federal) government, giving up, in the process, certain rights and responsibilities, generally in foreign affairs. This make Federation is both a step-up (more connected) but also a setback (members are less freedom) than a Confederation. In Federation, self-governing status of the component polities, as well as the division of power among them and the federal government, are usually entrenched in constitution and cannot be altered by any unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Hence secesionism, while still possible, is usually unlikely.
On interstellar scale, a federation is a cluster of worlds and civilizations, dividing sovereignty power among central authority and their constituent members, so that each of them retains different specific levels of control over internal affairs. The majority of interstellar federations are parliamentary or presidential democracies, although there are few that run in different forms, such as military oligarchy, kratocracy or even feudal monarchy. Some notably examples are the Dorssia, the NKR,.... There are also quasi-federations, such as the GACS, whereas a star nation or organization is de facto a federation.
Most federations usually encompass vast space coverage, easily spanning billions worlds (such as HFD, USA, Oceania or Eastasia), or even star systems. They're also multi-species, multi-civilizations, although neither are necessary the case. One advantage of federations is to encourages other common interests, reduces differences between space-faring territories, and gives them all even more common ground.
Beside federation, there are several other terms, as stated below
*Accordments
*Federacies
*Legion
*Parities
*Unifications
Again, however, much like other types, name can be trickery. Governments using this term in their name may actually vary greatly from the standard and accepted definition of the term.
A federation is one step higher than a confederation, as it is more than a merely union of worlds and systems. Each member unit retains some levels of independence, such as the rights to self-rule in internal affairs, or reserve some forms of armed forces... However, they do not have powers in relation to foreign policy and so enjoy no independent status under pan-universe law. Only a very handful of such units, of much larger empires like UFP or YIC, hold such power. Like confederations, several federations are referred to as asymmetric, with some stellar units having more power than others.
In details, the power structure of a federation is divided among 7 points.
The structural power in a federal government is properly divided between central authority and their units. Such divisions are guaranteed by the constitutions, and properly enforced by the armed forces in two ways: Either the constitution declares what kinds of power the central owns, while leaving the rest for federal subjects, including regional polities and civilizations; or the other way around.
The remainder is generally known as residuary powers. First method will result in central authority is weak in relation to their federal subjects, while the second one creates the opposite affect.
Unlike confederations which depend more on mutual relationships and common interests, federations usually have, and strictly enforce, written constitutions. Such paperworks properly define, categorize and limit the relations among member states, define the labyrinth of partnerships among them, as well as making sure that no one holds much more power than others. There's an unspeakable rule across all known spaces: Even within the most autocratic empires, constitutions have to be democratic and upheld tight.
Based off mainly from The Traveller, but also from fairly just about any works (again, mostly anime) the writer has ever read, watched or known of.
Derived from 7 Salient Features of a Federation
