Federal systems are characterised by compound and complex forms of democratic representation. The federal level addresses citizens both as members of the federal polity and as members of a constituent unit. This paper takes into account the existence of these multiple public identities of federal citizens by systematically comparing the degree of subfederal representation in 13 federal systems with QCA. The analysis shows that, apart from the EU, also traditional federal systems have a high degree of subfederal representation. Additionally, the paper looks in which kinds of federal systems we observe this. It shows that a heterogeneous society combined with low national pride or high economic diversity is sufficient to observe a high degree of subfederal representation. From there on conclusions are drawn on the EU and the Low Countries.