Editing Federation (section)

===Federations===
The component states are in some sense sovereign, insofar as certain powers are reserved to them that may not be exercised by the central government. However, a federation is more than a mere loose alliance of independent states. The component states of a federation usually possess no powers in relation to foreign policy and so enjoy no independent status under [[international law]]. However, [[States_of_Germany|German Länder]] have that power,<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Leonardy | first1 = U. | title = Federation and Länder in German foreign relations: Power-sharing in treaty-making and European affairs | doi = 10.1080/09644009208404305 | journal = German Politics | volume = 1 | issue = 3 | pages = 119–135 | year = 1992 }}</ref> which is beginning to be exercised on a European level.

Some federations are called [[asymmetric federation|asymmetric]] because some states have more autonomy than others. An example of such a federation is [[Malaysia]], in which [[Sarawak]] and [[Sabah]] agreed to form the federation on different terms and conditions from the states of [[Peninsular Malaysia]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harding |first=Andrew |date=2021-01-25 |title=Asymmetric Federalism and Protection of Indigenous Peoples: The Case of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysian Federalism |url=https://50shadesoffederalism.com/case-studies/asymmetric-federalism-and-protection-of-indigenous-peoples-the-case-of-sabah-and-sarawak-in-malaysian-federalism/ |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=50 Shades of Federalism |language=en-GB}}</ref>

A federation often emerges from an initial agreement between several separate states. The purpose can be the will to solve mutual problems and to provide for mutual defense or to create a [[nation state|nation-state]] for an ethnicity spread over several states. The former was the case with the United States and Switzerland. However, as the histories of countries and nations vary, the federalist system of a state can be quite different from these models. Australia, for instance, is unique in that it came into existence as a nation by the democratic vote of the citizens of each state, who voted "yes" in referendums to adopt the [[Australian Constitution]]. Brazil, on the other hand, has experienced both the federal and the unitary state during its history. Some present-day states of the Brazilian federation retain borders set during the Portuguese colonization (before the very existence of the Brazilian state), whereas the latest state, [[Tocantins (state)|Tocantins]], was created by the [[1988 Brazilian Constitution|1988 Constitution]] for chiefly administrative reasons.

Seven of the top eight [[list of countries and outlying territories by total area|largest countries by area]] are governed as federations.<!-- Would it be safe to say here that Federalism is often associated with large countries? Probably Original Research... -->