A unit of government that is created by and dependent on another government may be said to be devolved.

A sovereign state composed in this way may be called a Federation. However, in some federations the federal government cannot alter the states against their wishes. The United States is the best known of these.

In Britain there are subordinate units of the United Kingdom in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The various assemblies in these divisions were set up by an act of the UK parliament and can, in theory, be abolished. The same is true of the states of India and Nigeria. In India the federal government can dismiss the state government and appoint a government in the name of the President of India. In Nigeria the states receive most of their money from the Federal government and are entirely dependent on it.