A federal capital is a political entity, often a municipality or capital city , that serves as the seat of the federal government . A federal capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government, where its location and relationship to subnational states are fixed by law or federal constitution . Federal capitals may or may not be considered states in themselves, and either exercise significant political autonomy from the federation or are directly ruled by the national government located within their premises, as federal districts .
19-404: Federal capitals are often new creations. That is, they are not established in one of the existing state capitals (but they may well be a pre-existing city). They have not grown organically as capitals tend to do in unitary states . This is because the creation of a federation is a new political entity and it is usually necessary not to favour any one of the constituent state capitals by making it
38-528: A person in international law if it meets the following criteria: According to the declarative theory, an entity's statehood is independent of its recognition by other states. By contrast, the constitutive theory defines a state as a person of international law only if it is recognised as such by other states that are already a member of the international community. Quasi-states often reference either or both doctrines in order to legitimise their claims to statehood. There are, for example, entities which meet
57-456: A country typically falls somewhere between the declarative theory and constitutive theory approaches. The criteria for inclusion on this list are limited to polities that claim sovereignty , lack recognition from at least one UN member state , and either: There are 193 United Nations (UN) member states , while both the Holy See and Palestine have observer state status in
76-472: Is a state of Germany in its own right and forms an enclave within the much larger state of Brandenburg ; and the Australian Capital Territory , a territory of Australia which includes the capital city of Australia , Canberra . Canada is the only federation in the world not to accord a special administrative subdivision to its capital. Rather, Ottawa is merely another municipality in
95-645: Is an example of a unitary state. Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland have a degree of autonomous devolved power, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom , which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution. Similarly in Spain , the devolved powers are delegated through the central government. States with limited recognition A number of polities have declared independence and sought diplomatic recognition from
114-478: Is influenced by the presence of a foreign military force in the territory of the contested entity, making the description of the country's de facto status problematic. The international community can judge this military presence too intrusive, reducing the entity to a puppet state where effective sovereignty is retained by the foreign power. Historical cases in this sense can be seen in Japanese -led Manchukuo or
133-572: Is one such state, as it maintains unofficial relations with many other states through its Economic and Cultural Offices , which allow regular consular services. This allows Taiwan to have economic relations even with states that do not formally recognise it. A total of 56 states, including Germany, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom, maintain some form of unofficial mission in Taiwan. Kosovo , Northern Cyprus , Abkhazia , Transnistria ,
152-632: The German -created Slovak Republic and Independent State of Croatia before and during World War II . In the 1996 case Loizidou v. Turkey , the European Court of Human Rights judged Turkey for having exercised authority in the territory of Northern Cyprus . There are also entities that do not have control over any territory or do not unequivocally meet the declarative criteria for statehood but have been recognised to exist as sovereign entities by at least one other state. Historically, this has happened in
171-504: The Napoleonic Wars , and to the world through the vast French colonial empire . Unitary states stand in contrast to federations , also known as federal states . A large majority of the UN member countries , 166 out of 193, have a unitary system of government, while significant population and land mass is under some kind of federation. A unitary system of government can be considered to be
190-408: The international community as sovereign states , but have not been universally recognised as such. These entities often have de facto control of their territory. A number of such entities have existed in the past. There are two traditional theories used to indicate how a sovereign state comes into being. The declarative theory (codified in the 1933 Montevideo Convention ) defines a state as
209-727: The Province of Ontario . The Canadian government does designate the Ottawa area as the National Capital Region , although this term merely represents the jurisdictional area of the government agency that administers federally owned lands and buildings, and is not an actual political unit. The City of Ottawa is governed as any other city in Ontario would be. During and immediately after the American Revolution , eight cities served in turn as
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#1732851046071228-585: The United Nations. However, some countries that fulfill the declarative criteria, are recognised by the large majority of other states and are members of the United Nations are still included in the list here because one or more other states do not recognise their statehood, due to territorial claims or other conflicts. Some states maintain informal (officially non-diplomatic) relations with states that do not officially recognise them. Taiwan (the Republic of China)
247-540: The capital of the new country: Unitary state List of forms of government A unitary state is a state or sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create or abolish administrative divisions (sub-national or sub state units). Such units exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate. Although political power may be delegated through devolution to regional or local governments by statute ,
266-407: The case of the Holy See (1870–1929); Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania (during Soviet annexation); and Palestine at the time of its declaration of independence in 1988. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is currently in this position . See list of governments in exile for unrecognised governments without control over the territory claimed. State practice relating to the recognition of
285-586: The central government may alter the statute, to override the decisions of devolved governments or expand their powers. The modern unitary state concept originated in France ; in the aftermath of the Hundred Years' War , national feelings that emerged from the war unified France. The war accelerated the process of transforming France from a feudal monarchy to a unitary state. The French then later spread unitary states by conquests , throughout Europe during and after
304-403: The declarative criteria (with de facto partial or complete control over their claimed territory, a government and a permanent population), but whose statehood is not recognised by any other states. Non-recognition is often a result of conflicts with other countries that claim those entities as integral parts of their territory. In other cases, two or more partially recognised states may claim
323-448: The federation capital. This is also the motivation behind the creation of federal capital territories as districts governed apart from the constituent state governments. It is especially important that the choice of federal capital be neutral in multi-ethnic states such as Nigeria. Examples of well-known federal capitals include Washington, D.C. , which is not part of any U.S. state but borders Maryland and Virginia ; Berlin , which
342-510: The opposite of federalism . In federations, the provincial/regional governments share powers with the central government as equal actors through a written constitution , to which the consent of both is required to make amendments. This means that the sub-national units have a right to existence and powers that cannot be unilaterally changed by the central government. Italics : States with limited recognition from other sovereign states or intergovernmental organizations . The United Kingdom
361-499: The same territorial area, with each of them de facto in control of a portion of it (for example, North Korea and South Korea , or the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China ). Entities that are recognised by only a minority of the world's states usually reference the declarative doctrine to legitimise their claims. In many situations, international non-recognition
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