A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. Usage of the term republic is inconsistent but, as a minimum, it means a state or federation of states that does not have a monarch.
In a federal republic, there is a division of powers between the national ("federal") government, and the government of the individual subdivisions. While each federal republic manages this division of powers differently, national security and defense, monetary policy, and other issues of a "national" scope are handled at the "federal" level while more local issues such as road and infrastructure maintenance and education policy are handled at the local level. However, views differ on what issues should be managed at "federal" levels and governance at the state-level, e.g.. While the federal government has sovereignty and responsibility in some matters apart from the say of sub-divisional governmental structures, the subdivisions also have sovereignty in some matters where the federal government does not have jurisdiction. This is in contrast to a unitary republic whereby the national government has complete sovereignty over all aspects of political life. In this case, regional structures of governance are just structures of national or federal governance, not having any autonomous ability to govern, legislate, or execute the law autonomously at that regional level. So regional governance of any form is not governance except as purely an administrative subdivisions of the larger governmental structure. A confederation is a form of republic whereby the constituent states or regional governing bodies have ultimate sovereignty and there is no autonomous federal government apart from the working together of the regional bodies or states on issues affecting the whole. The federal republic is a form of government used by many countries around the world and it can take almost any form- from aristocracies to democracies to tyrannies. As in the United States, many federal republics are Constitutional Republics which seek to ensure the rights of individuals and groups within the republic.
Famous quotes containing the words federal and/or republic:
“[M]y conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors and especially to harm the future generations of Americans. If many years ago we had had the necessary knowledge, and especially the necessary willingness on the part of the Federal Government, we would have saved a sum, a sum of money which has cost the taxpayers of America two billion dollars.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)