Figurehead and leader, perhaps, of the state (7)
I believe the answer is:
federal
'of the state' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'figurehead and leader perhaps' is the wordplay.
'figurehead' becomes 'f' (head letter of 'figure').
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'perhaps' indicates anagramming the letters.
'leader' is an anagram of 'ederal'.
'f'+'ederal'='FEDERAL'
(Other definitions for federal that I've seen before include "(Of a union or government) involving states voluntarily joined together for common purposes" , "describing Stateside governance" , "Red flea (anag.)" , "like the USA" , "Lad-free (anag)" .)