Constituent States of Tepertopia (Pacifica)

Constituent State
Constituent State
	G: Grimmen; L: Lotce; P: Pluvy; V: Valetria; W: Vickel
Category	Federated state
Location	Tepertopia
Number	5
Populations	Smallest: Grimmen, 138,457; Largest: Pluvy, 517,041
Areas	Smallest: Lotce, 780 square kilometres (300 sq mi); Largest: Pluvy, 4,640 square kilometres (1,790 sq mi)
Subdivisions	District (or equivalent)

The United Protectorate of Tepertopia consists of five Constituent States (Alman: Bundesstaaten, [ˈbʊndəsˌʃtaːtn̩]), commonly simply called States (Alman: Staaten, [ˈʃtaːtən]) bound together in political union. Within their defined borders, the States remain partly sovereign while delegating defined powers to the Federal government, as prescribed by the Tepertopian Articles of Union.

States on the island of Tepertopia first joined together for the Tepertopian First Protectorate in the 11th century, with the current Third Protectorate coming into existence in 1889 with the conclusion of the Articles of Union as treaty between the Grand Duchy of Grimmen, Principality of Lotce, Barony of Peninley, Pluvyan Federation, Grand Duchy of Valetria, and Republic of Vickel as its States. With Peninley later joining the Pluvyan Federation as a member state, the other five are Tepertopia's current States.

Powers, rights, and responsibilities of the States are laid down in the Articles of Union. The States must all maintain written constitutions which guarantee a division of sovereign power in executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and respect the abstract principlies of "freedom, democracy, social solidarity, and the rule of law" (Art. 1). In matters of the federation, each State is entitled to send non-voting Delegates to the Tepertopian Assembly, the Federal legislature, and must be represented with at least one Councillor in the Council of the Union, the Federal government. Furthermore, where the Articles do not explicitly empower the federation, the States have exclusive power to pass legislation and otherwise decide policy on any matter (most notably, law enforcement, press law, and assembly law are left to the States to decide), and to otherwise exercise sovereign power and discharge the other functions of state. Insofar the States have the power to legislate, they may also themselves conclude treaties, subject to the approval of the Council of the Union.

States may join each other and break up into multiple new States. While the former has been invoked by Peninley acceeding to the Pluvyan Federation, a break-up has never occurred. According to the last Article of the Articles of Union, Art. 171, the outright admission of external entities as new States is "not intended", which has also sparked discussion among the legal world of Tepertopia as to the extent to which this provision bans the accession of new States. Unambigously clear, however, is Art. 10 in stating that "[t]here is no secession" from the federation.

List of current States

State	Code	Capital	Head of state	Head of government	Legislature	Area (km²)	Pop.
Grimmen	G	Happelstein	Grand Duchess (Großherzogin) Margarethe I	Chancellor (Kanzlerin) Margot Fleckenstein	Diet (Landtag)	1,132.9	138,457
Template:Country data Lotce	L	Lotce City	Prince (Fürst) Bert II	Princely Council (Fürstlicher Rat)	Diet (Landtag)	780.0	143,323
Pluvy	P	Adaca	President (Präsident) Timothy Emerton		Federal Congress (Bundeskongress)	4,639.8	517,041
Valetria	V	Merpor	Grand Duke George IV	Prime Minister Cornelius Marshall	Parliament	4,382.7	513,515
Vickel	W	Wesford	Prime Minister (Premierministerin) Brittany Collier		Parliament (Parlament)	1,789.6	239,075

History

Subdivisions

Except for Pluvy, the Constituent States are all unitary states. Subdivisions and their rights and powers are determined by the States themselves, with the Articles of Union only requiring that Municipalities must exist and have authority to govern "local affairs" (Art. 11). However, all States have opted to create at least one administrative layer between State and Municipality, by convention called Districts.

Besides serving administrative purposes, the Federal electoral law also stipulates that the top-level subdivisions of States are the constituencies for elections to the Tepertopian Assembly, with seats allocated to them based on the number of eligible voters inhabiting them. This further gives the States a way of influencing Federal matters, albeit this is in comparison very limited due to the overall proportionality element of Federal legislative elections making gerrymandering less profitable.

Grimmen

District	Code	Capital	Area (km²)	Pop.
Berge	BG	Midmin	585.5	25,927
Happelstein	HA	Happelstein	138.3	90,039
Tal	TA	Bergein	409.1	22,491

Lotce

District	Code	Capital	Area (km²)	Pop.
Oberland	OB	Pforzheim	330.6	24,898
Stadt	ST	Lotce City	38.1	65,125
Unterland	UN	Tiengen	411.6	53,300

Pluvy

The Pluvyan Federation is itself a federal state, composed of eleven Member States.

Member State	Code	Capital	Area (km²)	Pop.
Adaca	AD	Adaca	49.2	154,499
Arbor	AR	Tiegen	446.3	42,253
Gerstle	GE	Karlstadt	415.8	24,071
Groß-Reichenbach	GR	Reichen	396.9	27,186
Hathamia	HT	Bleterton	412.7	40,605
Herzogtum	HZ	Dorfstadt	215.1	28,500
Nair	NA	Lienau	452.3	22,830
Partania	PA	Prester	365.1	23,689
Peninley	PY	Thormire	415.7	46,449
Schöffel	SC	Schöffelstadt	824.7	67,647
Südkap	SU	Zaden	646.0	39,285

Valetria

District	Code	Capital	Area (km²)	Pop.
Atrinch	AT	Atrinch	405.6	34,793
Bellver	BE	Mermouth	686.1	63,157
Central	CE	Showey	742.1	37,797
Grasslands North	GN	Nesoney	423.8	26,313
Grasslands South	GS	Nosbowey	403.6	34,000
Merpor	ME	Merpor	308.2	132,024
Nosterming	NO	Nosterming	182.6	49,017
Peninsula	PE	Saldon	401.7	51,964
Riverside	RI	Helston	829.1	84,450

Vickel

District	Code	Capital	Area (km²)	Pop.
Haliston Lower	HL	Craftham	261.6	21,015
Haliston Upper	HU	Halistonfound	495.2	49,567
Heckel	HE	Gulachtal	519.8	49,631
Knutsfield	KN	Knutsfield	258.3	29,474
Wesford	WE	Wesford	254.7	89,388