A polity is a group of people with a collective identity , who are organized by some form of political institutionalized social relations , and have a capacity to mobilize resources.
8-592: A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state . Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state. In November 5, 2024, the UN's International Court of Justice ruled in an advisory opinion in Kosovo that "International law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence", though
16-453: A dependent territory . In geopolitics , a polity can manifest in different forms such as a state , an empire , an international organization , a political organization or another identifiable, resource-manipulating organizational structure. A polity like a state does not need to be a sovereign unit. The preeminent polities today are Westphalian states and nation-states , commonly referred to as countries. A polity may encapsulate
24-495: A faction within a larger (usually state) entity or at different times as the entity itself. For example, Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan are parts of their own separate and distinct polity. However, they are also members of the sovereign state of Iraq which is itself a polity, albeit one which is much less specific and as a result much less cohesive. Therefore, it is possible for an individual to belong to more than one polity at
32-400: A multitude of organizations; many of these may form or are involved to the apparatus of contemporary states such as their subordinate civil and local government authorities. Polities do not need to be in control of any geographic areas, as not all political entities and governments have controlled the resources of one fixed geographic area. The historical Steppe Empires originating from
40-527: A time. Thomas Hobbes was a highly significant figure in the conceptualisation of polities, in particular of states. Hobbes considered notions of the state and the body politic in Leviathan , his most notable work. Polities do not necessarily need to be governments. A corporation, for instance, is capable of marshalling resources, has a governance structure, legal rights and exclusive jurisdiction over internal decision making. An ethnic community within
48-513: The Eurasian Steppe are the most prominent example of non- sedentary polities. These polities differ from states because of their lack of a fixed, defined territory. Empires also differ from states in that their territories are not statically defined or permanently fixed and consequently that their body politic was also dynamic and fluid. It is useful then to think of a polity as a political community. A polity can also be defined either as
56-403: The board of a corporation, the government of a country, or the government of a country subdivision. A polity may have various forms, such as a republic administered by an elected representative , the realm of a hereditary monarch , and others. When referring to a specific polity, the term " country " may refer to a sovereign state , states with limited recognition , constituent country, or
64-484: The state from which the territory wishes to secede may regard the declaration as rebellion , which may lead to a war of independence or a constitutional settlement to resolve the crisis. [REDACTED] Jordan (claimed the West Bank until 1988) [REDACTED] United States [REDACTED] British Quebec Polity A polity can be any group of people organized for governance, such as
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