The terms “federal state” and “federated state” are often used interchangeably, but they can have slightly different meanings depending on the context.
A federal state generally refers to a political system where the power is divided between a central authority and various constituent units, such as states or provinces. Examples of federal states include the United States, Canada, and Germany. In these systems, the central government and the state governments have their own areas of legislative power.
On the other hand, a federated state typically describes one of the individual units within a federal system. For example, in the United States, Texas and California are federated states, as they are part of the larger federal system of the U.S.
So, while both terms are related to federalism, a “federal state” refers to the overall system of governance, while a “federated state” refers to the individual entities within that system. In summary, they are not quite the same, but they are closely related concepts.