History Main / TheFederation

* The Universal Union in ''Literature/{{Redshirts}}''.

* The Terran Empire in ''Literature/TechnicHistory''. Despite it's name, it is on the whole a "good" state. It is not faultless: in the first part it is prone to [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression forceful expansionism]], and in the latter era it is riddled with sloth and incompetence. But it [[WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs brings civilization]] and it is generally better that it exist then not exist.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'''s Third Imperium is often described as a "feudal confederation". Due to the sheer size of the interstellar empire most planets are left to govern themselves as long as they pay taxes to fund the noble-run Imperial Bureaucracy and military and obey the "no nukes, no interfering with interstellar trade" laws.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Basically all of the major Order factions are this: a state that is in actuality 10-15 pseudo-independent realms that swear loyalty to a nominal higher authority but maintain near-complete autonomy. The High Elves of Ulthuan, Dwarfs of Karaz Ankor, Wood Elves of Athel Loren, and Bretonnians all fit the bill, but the best example is the Empire. Despite the name, this is a more fitting description of the Empire, due to the high degree of autonomy enjoyed by the Elector-Counts and the smaller regions that they control. Being a FantasyCounterpartCulture of the Holy Roman Empire, it works in much the same way: it consists of a number of semi-autonomous regions each headed by an Elector-Count who swears loyalty to the current Emperor, who they vote into position -- each Elector-Count has one vote, the Church of Sigmar has three (one for the Grand Theogenist and one for each Arch-Lector), one for the leader of the Church of Ulric and one for the Elder of the Moot. The Emperor has little to no say in the day-to-day runnings of each province and the populations include halflings, dwarfs and even some elves who live (mostly) comfortably among the human majority.

** ''Fallout: New Vegas'' goes out of its way to try and paint the NCR as just as bad as the other two factions, respectively a one-man dictatorship enforced by an army of robots and a band of barbarous, misogynist, pseudo-Roman slavers. This is due to [[WordOfGod Chris Avellone]]'s belief that the progress made by the NCR has undermined the post-apocalyptic feel of the series, to the extent that he added a "nuke NCR" option in the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC. [[http://twitter.com/#!/ChrisAvellone/status/117371054938263552 He's said on his twitter account]] that if another ''Fallout'' comes to him, he's nuking the NCR for a clean slate in the region.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' plays with this:
** The Tau Empire, a small but RisingEmpire in the galactic east, is run by the only guys in the setting who know the definition of the word diplomacy, let their allies keep their own militaries, and treat the inhabitants of annexed territory fairly well. They're also perfectly willing to use force when asking someone nicely to join the empire fails, keep client states' armies small so they're reliant on Tau support or use their vassals' forces as auxiliaries, and maintain the setting's most centralised government, divided into a caste system rumored to be mind-controlled by the ruling Ethereal class. So depending on how cynical an observer is, the Tau can be seen as either TheRepublic of ''40k'', a proper Federation, or an Empire with good publicity.
** The Imperium, despite being very much TheEmpire of the setting, paradoxically operates as The Federation [[DystopiaIsHard out of pragmatism]]. So long as component worlds pay their tithes of resources and manpower, enforce an acceptable mutation of the Imperial Cult, and hand over any psykers to the [[MutantDraftBoard Black Ships]], the [[VastBureaucracy Administratum]] lets a planet's governor run their world as they see fit. So if you live close to Terra you'll probably be in an Orwellian nightmare, while if you live in the distant realm of Ultramar it will probably seem more like The Federation. Throw in semi-autonomous factions such as SpaceMarine chapter fiefdoms and the loose empire-within-an-empire of the [[MachineWorship Adeptus Mechanicus]] and you've got a complicated political situation.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

** The Atlantic and Eurasian Federations in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed''. Though part of an alliance of Earth superstates, they're the major influences of that side. Typical for Gundam, both have negative aspects. Though allies, both powers mistrust each other. The Atlantic Federation is prejudiced against Coordinators, influenced by the Blue Cosmos terror group. Meanwhile, the Eurasian Federation is almost entirely opportunist, attempting to steal from or subvert its allies in an attempt to get ahead once ZAFT is out of the picture. [[spoiler: The Altantic Federation ends up pulling an EvilerThanThou in both wars, first sacrificing the Eurasians at JOSH-A, then outright attacking them when they try to switch sides with the Destroy.]]
*** The Earth Alliance (aka OMNI) as a whole qualifies. At the surface, it's just self-interested and ineffectual. The problem is that its military high command is controlled by [[FantasticRacism Coordinator-hating Blue Cosmos adherents]], and too many of its industrial and economic leaders are of the WarForFunAndProfit variety. It's shown that, while most of the civilian council don't seem outwardly villainous (they'd rather fix Earth's energy crisis than wipe out the other side), they don't have the guts to stop people like [[CompleteMonster Azrael]] from walking over them.
** The Earth Sphere Federation from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' is just a pawn for a tyrannical mastermind, abusing its political power against whoever opposes his reign -- and do not forget his right-hand men, the [[StateSec A-LAWS]], either. Once the A-Laws and it's masters fall, the Federation becomes ''much'' more nicer. By the time of the movie, the Federation is pretty much near ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s level of benevolence. In addition there's The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations and the Advanced European Union (AEU). Averting the franchise trend, both groups are actually pretty nice, save for their Cold War with each other and the occasional political turmoil with it's members.

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' is a prequel happening before the foundation of the Federation. It shows some of the events the precede their went formation, like the Coalition of Planets against the Romulan menace. It also shows the Xindi Council in the third season; an alliance of five different species originating from the same planet. They co-operate despite their internal cultural and physical differences. These are the Primates, the Arboreals, the Aquatics, the Reptilians and the Insectoids. A sixth race, the Avians, went extinct during their last war which destroyed their home planet and led to the council forming to avoid such things happening again.

* A Galactic Federation is mentioned in ''Series/{{ALF}}'' to once held a conference on Incredibly Strange Food Groups hosted by Alf's home planet Melmac.

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' is a prequel happening before the foundation of the Federation and showing some of the precedents that eventually went into its formation like the Coalition of Planets against the Romulan menace. However it also shows the Xindi Council in the third season; an alliance of five different species originated from the same planet that cooperate dispite their internal cultural and physical differences. This are the Primates, the Arboreans, the Acuatics, the Reptilians and the Insectoides. A sixth race the Avians went extinct during the last war that destroyed the home planet causing the council to exist to avoid such thing happens again.

* [[TheGovernment The World Government]] in ''Manga/OnePiece'' poses as this, a collection of kingdoms who are all equal to one another. To reinforce the image, there is no one king but rather a council of five (the Five Elder Stars) to oversee them, as well as the Empty Throne that no king may sit in. [[spoiler:This is a total lie]].

If pitted against TheEmpire, it's usually in a UsefulNotes/ColdWar-like state, just recovering from a recent war, or a few international incidents from plunging into one. They often give covert aid (weapons, funds, supplies) to any [[LaResistance resistance movements]], but won't intervene directly unless they're already at war. In general, it frequently plays an America-like role in the political climate of the setting. If there's a movement to overthrow or undermine it, it's likely TheRemnant.

* And then there are those countries that, while officially unitary, have devolved sufficiently to be considered ''de facto'' federations. UsefulNotes/Spain is an example, being made of "autonomous communities" with their own governments; this system is referred to as the "State of Autonomous Communities".