Federal districts are subdivisions of a federal system of government. Often, these districts are not one of the countries' component subdivisions, and should not be confused with them, but are rather separate entities under the direct control of the federal government. The seat of the federal government is often located in a Federal District, so that no single individual component can exercise undue influence over federal affairs.
United States
There are several types of federal districts in the United States:
Other countries
The term Distrito Federal, meaning "Federal District" in both the Spanish and Portuguese languages, is used to refer to:
In Australia, the seat of the federal government in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, which is a federal district.
In India, the capital city, New Delhi, is located in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
Other uses
There are seven Federal districts of Russia, which function as an additional administrative layer between other subdivisions and the Russian Federation as a whole. But these have nothing to do with the territory surrounding a capital city.
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_district under GFDL
