List of forms of government
19-608: A land district is a type of administrative division in some countries. The lands administrative divisions of New South Wales refers to the 141 counties within the Colony of New South Wales, that later became the Australian state of New South Wales. Land districts are the cadastral system underlying land titles in the province, and used by the provincial gazetteer in descriptions of landforms, administrative areas, and other information. Those on Vancouver Island were established via
38-664: A Lands Act of the government of the Colony of Vancouver Island, from 1843 onwards; those on the Mainland were established by the Lands Act of 1860 by the Colony of British Columbia. The land districts of New Zealand are the cadastral divisions of New Zealand, which are used on property titles. There are 12 districts, six in the North Island and six in the South Island. The land districts are similar to, but different from,
57-559: 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
76-407: A cross-border resource like water or other shared matters. In some cases, a federation is created from the union of political entities that are either independent or dependent territories of another sovereign entity (most commonly a colonial power ). In other cases, federated states have been created out of the administrative divisions of previously unitary states . Once a federal constitution
95-425: A defined geographic territory and is a form of regional government. A federated state may nonetheless establish offices internationally, for example, to promote trade or tourism, while still operating only within the trade policy or other applicable law of their federation, and their host country. They also may enter into international regional agreements under the laws of their federation and state, such as to protect
114-661: A degree of constitutionally guaranteed autonomy that varies substantially from one federation to another. Depending on the form the decentralization of powers takes, a federated state's legislative powers may or may not be overruled or vetoed by the federal government. Laws governing the relationship between federal and regional powers can be amended through the national or federal constitution, and, if they exist, state constitutions as well. In terms of internal politics, federated states can have republican or monarchical forms of government. Those of republican form (federated republics) are usually called states (like states of
133-406: 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
152-427: 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
171-553: 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". Federated state A federated state (also state , province , region, canton , land , governorate , oblast , emirate , or country )
190-467: 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
209-466: Is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation . A federated state does not have international sovereignty since powers are divided between the other federated states and the federal government . Unlike international sovereign states , which have what is often referred to as Westphalian sovereignty (such as exercised by their federal government), federated states operate under their domestic or federal law with relation to
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#1732779956820228-617: 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
247-407: Is formed, the rules governing the relationship between federal and regional powers become part of the country's constitutional law and not international law . In countries with federal constitutions, there is a division of power between the central government and the component states. These entities – states, provinces, counties, cantons, Länder, etc. – are partially self-governing and are afforded
266-730: 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
285-485: 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
304-490: The 16 local government regions. The current legislation for the land districts is the Land Transfer Act 1952. 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 a particular independent sovereign state
323-431: 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
342-413: The rest of the world. Importantly, federated states do not have automatic standing as entities of international law. Instead, the federal union (federation) as a single entity is the sovereign state for purposes of international law. Depending on the constitutional structure of a particular federation, a federated state can hold various degrees of legislative, judicial, and administrative jurisdiction over
361-402: 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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