List of forms of government
18-565: A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties , departments , or provinces . Internationally, the most politically important cantons are the Swiss cantons . As the constituents of the Swiss Confederation , theoretically and historically, they are semi-sovereign states. The term
36-508: A region of France , enjoys a greater degree of autonomy on matters such as tax and education compared to mainland regions. New Caledonia , a sui generis collectivity, and French Polynesia , an overseas collectivity , are highly autonomous territories with their own government, legislature, currency, and constitution. They do not, however, have legislative powers for policy areas relating to law and order, defense, border control or university education. Other smaller overseas collectivities have
54-559: A country is sometimes called the " first-level (or first-order ) administrative division" or "first administrative level". Its next subdivision might be called "second-level administrative division" or "second administrative level" and so on. An alternative terminology is provided by the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics which terms the principal division as the second level or NUTS-2. Administrative divisions are conceptually separate from dependent territories , with
72-650: A lesser degree of autonomy through local legislatures. The five overseas regions, French Guiana , Guadeloupe , Martinique , Mayotte , and Réunion , are generally governed the same as mainland regions; however, they enjoy some additional powers, including certain legislative powers for devolved areas. New Zealand maintains nominal sovereignty over three Pacific Island nations. The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing countries in free association with New Zealand that maintain some international relationships in their own name. Tokelau remains an autonomous dependency of New Zealand. The Chatham Islands —despite having
90-406: A number of smaller entities. Within those entities are the large and small cities or towns, which may or may not be the county seat . Some of the world's larger cities culturally, if not officially, span several counties, and those crossing state or provincial boundaries have much in common culturally as well, but are rarely incorporated within the same municipal government. Many sister cities share
108-660: A particular independent sovereign state is divided. Such a unit usually has an administrative authority with the power to take administrative or policy decisions for its area. Usually, sovereign states have several levels of administrative division. Common names for the principal (largest) administrative divisions include: states (subnational states, rather than sovereign states), provinces , lands , oblasts and regions . These in turn are often subdivided into smaller administrative units known by names such as comarcas , raions or districts , which are further subdivided into municipalities , communes or communities constituting
126-427: A province, region, canton, land, governorate, oblast, emirate, or country. Administrative units that are not federated or confederated but enjoy a greater degree of autonomy or self-government than other territories within the same country can be considered autonomous regions or de facto constituent states of that country. This relationship is by some authors called a federacy or asymmetric federalism . An example
144-606: A water boundary, which quite often serves as a border of both cities and counties. For example, Cambridge and Boston , Massachusetts appear to the casual traveler as one large city, while locally they each are quite culturally different and occupy different counties. General terms for these incorporated places include " municipality ", " settlement ", "locality", and "populated place". Autonomous administrative division An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area , zone , entity , unit , region , subdivision , province , or territory )
162-467: Is (by area or population), the fewer levels of administrative divisions it has. For example, Vatican City does not have any administrative subdivisions, and Monaco has only one level (both are city-states ), while such countries as France and Pakistan have five levels each. The United States is composed of states, possessions, territories , and a federal district , each with varying numbers of subdivisions. The principal administrative division of
180-643: Is a self-governing overseas territory of the UK . Most of the other 13 British Overseas Territories also have autonomy in internal affairs through local legislatures. Aruba , Curaçao , and Sint Maarten are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands , each with their own parliament. In addition they enjoy autonomy in taxation matters as well as having their own currencies. The French Constitution recognises three autonomous jurisdictions. Corsica ,
198-410: Is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy — self-governance — under the national government. Autonomous areas are distinct from other constituent units of a federation (e.g. a state, or province) in that they possess unique powers for their given circumstances. Typically, it is either geographically distinct from the rest of
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#1732765930128216-509: Is derived from the French word canton , meaning "corner" or "district" (from which " cantonment " is also derived). Cantons exist or previously existed in the following countries: Administrative division Administrative divisions (also administrative units , administrative regions , #-level subdivisions , subnational entities , or constituent states , as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which
234-730: Is no fixed rule, for " all politics is local " as is perhaps well demonstrated by their relative lack of systemic order. In the realm of self-government, any of these can and does occur along a stretch of road—which for the most part is passing through rural, unsettled countryside. Since the terms are administrative political divisions of the local regional government, their exact relationship and definitions are subject to home rule considerations, tradition, as well as state statute law and local governmental (administrative) definition and control. In British cultural legacy, some territorial entities began with fairly expansive counties which encompass an appreciably large area, but were divided over time into
252-485: Is the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan within Uzbekistan . Due to variations in their use worldwide, consistency in the translation of terms from non-English to English is sometimes difficult to maintain. In many of the following terms originating from British cultural influence, areas of relatively low mean population density might bear a title of an entity one would expect to be either larger or smaller. There
270-534: The state or populated by a national minority, which may exercise home rule . Decentralization of self-governing powers and functions to such divisions is a way for a national government to try to increase democratic participation or administrative efficiency or to defuse internal conflicts. States that include autonomous areas may be federacies , federations , or confederations . Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, and local autonomies. Tobago Gibraltar
288-522: The designation of Territory —is an integral part of the country, situated within the New Zealand archipelago; its council is not autonomous and has broadly the same powers as other local councils, although notably it can also charge levies on goods entering or leaving the islands. In Ethiopia , "special woredas" are a subgroup of woredas (districts) that are organized around the traditional homelands of specific ethnic minorities , and are outside
306-431: The former being an integral part of the state and the other being only under some lesser form of control. However, the term "administrative division" can include dependent territories as well as accepted administrative divisions (for example, in geographical databases ). Communities united in a federation under a federal government are more specifically known as federated states . A federated state may be referred to as
324-402: The smallest units of subdivision (the local governments ). Some administrative division names (such as departments , cantons , prefectures , counties or governorates ) can be used for principal, second-level, or third-level divisions. The levels of administrative divisions and their structure largely varies by country (and sometimes within a single country). Usually the smaller the country
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