A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. A federation is the central government. The states in a federation also maintain all political sovereignty that they do not yield to the federation. 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 as head of state.
Three states explicitly describe themselves as federal republics. These are the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. A close variant is the term federative republic, which appears in the full official title of Brazil. Not every federation is a republic; for example Canada, Australia, and Malaysia are each federal constitutional monarchies.
In English, the phrase "Federal Republic" was often used to refer to West Germany, in contrast with the German Democratic Republic, otherwise called East Germany.
