rogercooper.com

Sometimes different polities exert control over the same territory, both viewing each other as legitimate.

Federations are a common form of government today. The United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, India, Germany & the United Kingdom are all federations of a sort. (Notably, the Russian Federation is a unitary state, not a federation). In all these countries, the state/provincial government is fiscally significant and is not answerable to the national government. However, the national government maintains the major military forces and conducts foreign policy, so I consider the national government to be the real state.

Confederations exist as well. In a confederation, the main decision-making takes place at the level of the national government. Today’s example would be the EU, although past examples might include the Holy Roman Empire from 1254 to its end. As the main power is at the level of the members, I consider the members to be the real state.