Polity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Polity (disambiguation).
A polity is a state or one of its subordinate civil authorities, such as a province, prefecture, county, municipality, city, or district.[1] It is generally understood to mean a geographic area with a corresponding government. Thomas Hobbes considered bodies politic in this sense in Leviathan.[2] In previous centuries, body politic was also understood to mean "the physical person of the sovereign" (in monarchies and despotisms, the emperor, king, or dictator, and, in republics, the electorate). Today, it may also refer to a representation of the ethnic or gender demographics of a region; for example, in many liberal democracies, cabinets are chosen to represent the body politic[citation needed].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ See: Black's Law Dictionary, 4th ed., West Publishing Co., (1968), and Uricich v. Kolesar, 54 Ohio App. 309, 7 N.E. 2d 413.
- ^ Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, (1651); http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/hobblev2.pdf; accessed 28 November 2008.
[edit] External links
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Analogy of the Body Politic (elaboration of correspondences between society or the state and the individual human body)
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