Yes. As well, we know that there is a Federation Council and have seen it, or a part of it, in ST:IV. From what I remember, there were many dozens of seats there, enough for one representative from each of the Federation's 200 (guessing a figure here, don't actually know but its in the low hundreds) member planets. But there were quite a lot of Starfleet personnel in that scene too, taking up seats.Guardsman Bass wrote:We hear of a "Federation Council" from Insurrection, though, don't we? Unless you believe they are one with Starfleet.
It would make more sense that the Federation/Starfleet was some sort of oversight body, responsible mainly for defense, exploration and foreign relations with other empires, rather than the Federation being responsible for planetary governance. Starfleet and Federation seem to be used interchangably all the time.
Brian