Federacy in the context of "List of autonomous areas by country"

An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, zone, entity, unit, region, subdivision, province, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy — self-governance — under the national government. Autonomous areas are distinct from other constituent units of a federation (e.g. a state, or province) in that they possess unique powers for their given circumstances. Typically, it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the state or populated by a national minority, which may exercise home rule. Decentralization of self-governing powers and functions to such divisions is a way for a national government to try to increase democratic participation or administrative efficiency or to defuse internal conflicts. States that include autonomous areas may be federacies, federations, or confederations. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, and local autonomies.

Åland (/ˈɔːlənd/ AW-lənd, Swedish: [ˈǒːland] ; Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area (1,580 km or 610 sq mi) and population (30,654), constituting 0.51% of Finland's land area and 0.54% of its population. Its official language is Swedish and the capital city is Mariehamn.

Åland is situated in an archipelago, called the Åland Islands, at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. It comprises Fasta Åland, on which 90% of the population resides, and about 6,500 skerries and islands to its east, of which about 60–80 are inhabited. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Roslagen in Sweden by 38 km (20+1⁄2 nautical miles) of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is contiguous with the Finnish archipelago. Åland's only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden. From Mariehamn, there is a ferry distance of about 160 km (86 nautical miles) to Turku, a coastal city of mainland Finland, and also to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

Xiang Yu (c. 232 – c. January 202 BC), born Xiang Ji, was a Chinese warlord who founded and led the short-lived kingdom-state of Western Chu during the interregnum period between the Qin and Han dynasties known as the Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC). A nobleman of the former state of Chu, Xiang Yu rebelled against the Qin dynasty under the command of his uncle Xiang Liang, and was granted the title of "Duke of Lu" (魯公) by King Huai II of the restoring Chu state in 208 BC. The following year, he led an outnumbered Chu army to victory at the Battle of Julu against the Qin armies led by Zhang Han. After the fall of Qin, Xiang Yu divided the country into a federacy of Eighteen Kingdoms, among which he was self-titled as the "Hegemon-King of Western Chu" (西楚霸王) and ruled a vast region spanning central and eastern China, with Pengcheng as his capital.

Although a formidable warrior and tactician, Xiang Yu was poor in both diplomacy and strategy, especially after dismissing his own adviser Fan Zeng. He was later outcompeted by his main rival Liu Bang during the massive civil war among the rebel kingdoms, which concluded with his eventual defeat and suicide in a last stand at the Battle of Gaixia. The demise of Xiang Yu allowed Liu Bang to subsequently become the founding emperor of the newly established Han dynasty, which is widely regarded as a golden age in Chinese history.

Asymmetric federalism or asymmetrical federalism is found in a federation or other types of union in which different constituent states possess different powers: one or more of the substates has considerably more autonomy than the other substates, although they have the same constitutional status. This is in contrast to symmetric federalism, where no distinction is made between constituent states. As a result, it is frequently proposed as a solution to the dissatisfaction that arises when one or more constituent units feel significantly different needs from the others, as the result of an ethnic, linguistic or cultural difference.

The difference between an asymmetric federation and federacy is indistinct. A federacy is essentially an extreme case of an asymmetric federation, either due to large differences in the level of autonomy, or the rigidity of the constitutional arrangements. An asymmetric federation, however, has to have a federal constitution, and all states in federation have the same formal status ("state"), while in a federacy independent substate has a different status ("autonomous region").