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49-537: The NFIRS has two objectives: to help state and local governments develop fire reporting and analysis capability for their own use, and to obtain data that can be used to more accurately assess and subsequently combat the fire problem at a national level. To meet these objectives, the USFA has developed a standard NFIRS package that includes incident and casualty forms, a coding structure for data processing purposes, manuals, computer software and procedures, documentation and

98-592: A National Fire Academy training course for utilizing the system. The NFIRS reporting format is based on the National Fire Protection Association Standard 901, "Uniform Coding for Fire Protection" (1976 version), the 1981 codes for Fire Service Casualty Reporting, and the 1990 codes for Hazardous Materials Reporting. The version of NFIRS current as of June, 2006, version 5.0, was released in January, 1999. NFIRS 5.0 expands

147-499: A U.S. Government website in the public domain . State governments of the United States ( Alabama to Missouri , Montana to Wyoming ) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] In the United States, state governments are institutional units exercising functions of government at a level below that of the federal government . Each U.S. state 's government holds legislative, executive, and judicial authority over

196-477: A bicameral legislature , meaning it comprises two chambers . The unicameral Nebraska Legislature is commonly called the "Senate", and its members are officially called "Senators". In the majority of states (26), the state legislature is simply called "Legislature". Another 19 states call their legislature "General Assembly". Two states ( Oregon and North Dakota ) use the term "Legislative Assembly", while another two ( Massachusetts and New Hampshire ) use

245-656: A court of last resort usually called a Supreme Court that hears appeals from lower state courts . New York's highest court is called the Court of Appeals , while its trial court is known as the Supreme Court . Maryland's highest court was called the Maryland Court of Appeals until 2022 when it was renamed the Supreme Court of Maryland . Texas and Oklahoma each have separate courts of last resort for civil and criminal appeals. Each state's court of last resort has

294-453: A coherent new state-system, although they were part of an ongoing change. Yet others, often post-colonialist scholars, point out the limited relevance of the 1648 system to the histories and state systems in the non-Western world. Nonetheless, "Westphalian sovereignty" continues to be used as a shorthand for the basic legal principles underlying the modern state system. The applicability and relevance of these principles have been questioned since

343-609: A defined geographic territory. The United States comprises 50 states : 9 of the Thirteen Colonies that were already part of the United States at the time the Constitution took effect in 1789, 4 that ratified the Constitution after its commencement , plus 37 that have been admitted since by Congress as authorized under Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. While each of the state governments within

392-402: A lack of democracy may foreshadow future humanitarian crises, or that democracy itself constitutes a human right, and therefore states not respecting democratic principles open themselves up to just war by other countries. However, proponents of this theory have been accused of being concerned about democracy, human rights and humanitarian crises only in countries where American global dominance

441-535: A principle." Political scientists like Hall Gardner have challenged the titular applicability of these historical treaties towards the political principle on such grounds as well. Others, such as Christoph Kampann and Johannes Paulmann , argue that the 1648 treaties, in fact, limited the sovereignty of numerous states within the Holy Roman Empire and that the Westphalian treaties did not present

490-634: A unique moral insight. It relied on a system of independent states refraining from interference in each other's domestic affairs and checking each other's ambitions through a general equilibrium of power. No single claim to truth or universal rule had prevailed in Europe's contests. Instead, each state was assigned the attribute of sovereign power over its territory. Each would acknowledge the domestic structures and religious vocations of its fellow states and refrain from challenging their existence. The principle of non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs

539-442: A vital role in the USFA's efforts to achieve an accurate nationwide analysis of the fire problem through support to NFIRS and its participating member states and metropolitan fire departments. NFIC's unique partnership of Federal, state and local participants has proven to be one of the most successful, productive and cost-beneficial programs ever attempted on a national level. This article incorporates text from www.usfa.fema.gov,

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588-428: Is challenged, while ignoring the same issues in other countries friendlier to the United States. Further criticism of Westphalian sovereignty arises regarding allegedly failed states , of which Afghanistan (before the 2001 US-led invasion ) has been often considered an example. By this view, it has been argued that no sovereignty exists and that international intervention is justified on humanitarian grounds and by

637-518: Is disseminated through a variety of means to states and other organizations. The National Fire Incident Reporting System is a model of successful Federal, State and local partnership. The database constitutes the world's largest, national, annual collection of incident information. The success of NFIRS is due in part to the unique cooperative effort between USFA and the National Fire Information Council (NFIC). NFIC plays

686-633: Is equal in international law. Additionally, the member states of the United States do not possess international legal sovereignty, meaning that they are not recognized by other sovereign states such as, for example, France, Germany or the United Kingdom, nor do they possess full interdependence sovereignty (a term popularized by international relations professor Stephen D. Krasner ), meaning that they cannot control movement of persons across state borders. This form of limited sovereignty (commonly called "dual sovereignty" or "separate sovereigns" in

735-544: Is taken as axiomatic . In 1998, at a Symposium on the Continuing Political Relevance of the Peace of Westphalia, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said that "humanity and democracy [were] two principles essentially irrelevant to the original Westphalian order" and levelled a criticism that "the Westphalian system had its limits. For one, the principle of sovereignty it relied on also produced

784-616: Is validated and consolidated into a single computerized database . Feedback reports are generated and forwarded to the participating fire departments. Periodically, computer media containing the aggregated statewide data is sent to the National Fire Data Center at the USFA to be included in the National Database. This database is used to answer questions about the nature and causes of injuries , deaths , and property loss resulting from fires. The information

833-549: The Children's Health Insurance Program . source: Westphalian sovereignty The Westphalian system , also known as Westphalian sovereignty , is a principle in international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory . The principle developed in Europe after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, based on the state theory of Jean Bodin and the natural law teachings of Hugo Grotius . It underlies

882-447: The Court of Chancery . Although the exact position of each component may vary, there are certain components common to most state governments: Education is one of the largest areas of spending by state governments. This includes K–12 education ( primary and secondary schools ) as well as State University systems . Health care is one of the largest areas of spending by state governments. This includes spending on Medicaid and

931-595: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 ) were seen by some as examples of humanitarian intervention, although their basis in international law is debatable. Other more recent interventions, and their attendant infringements of state sovereignty, also have prompted debates about their legality and motivations. A new notion of contingent sovereignty seems to be emerging, but it has not yet reached the point of international legitimacy. Neoconservatism in particular has developed this line of thinking further, asserting that

980-526: The Republic of Texas ), and Vermont (1791, previously the de facto but unrecognized Vermont Republic ). One was established from unorganized territory : California (1850, from land ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848 under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ). The legislative branch of the U.S. states consists of state legislatures . Every state except for Nebraska has

1029-552: The Song and Liao dynasties in 11th century China. This system was thereafter copied and further developed in East Asia in the following centuries until the establishment of the pan-Eurasian Mongol Empire in the 13th century. The Westphalian system reached its peak in the late 19th century. Although practical considerations still led powerful states to seek to influence the affairs of others, forcible intervention by one country in

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1078-592: The Thirty Years' War , a war of religion that devastated Germany and killed 30% of its population. Since neither the Catholics nor the Protestants had won a clear victory, the peace settlement established a status quo order in which states would refrain from interfering in each other's religious practices. Henry Kissinger wrote: The Westphalian peace reflected a practical accommodation to reality, not

1127-457: The "State Assembly", while Nevada and New York simply call the lower house the "Assembly". New Jersey calls its lower house the "General Assembly". The executive branch of every state is headed by an elected Governor . Most states have a plural executive, in which several key members of the executive branch are directly elected by the people and serve alongside the Governor. These include

1176-638: The "supra authority" of both the Catholic Church and the Catholic Habsburg -led Emperor. Recent scholarship has argued that the titular Westphalian treaties in 1648 actually had little to do with the principles with which they are often associated: sovereignty, non-intervention, and the legal equality of states. For example, Andreas Osiander writes that "the treaties confirm neither [France's or Sweden's] 'sovereignty' nor anybody else's; least of all do they contain anything about sovereignty as

1225-569: The 1964 decision Reynolds v. Sims , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, unlike the United States Senate , state senates must be elected from districts of approximately equal population . In 40 of the 49 bicameral state legislatures, the lower house is called the "House of Representatives". The name "House of Delegates" is only used in Maryland , Virginia , and West Virginia . California and Wisconsin call their lower house

1274-472: The Constitution. Six subsequent states were never an organized territory of the federal government, or part of one, before being admitted to the Union. Three were set off from an already existing state: Kentucky (1792, from Virginia ), Maine (1820, from Massachusetts ), and West Virginia (1863, from Virginia ). Two were sovereign states at the time of their admission: Texas (1845, previously

1323-463: The United States holds legal and administrative jurisdiction within its bounds, they are not sovereign in the Westphalian sense in international law which says that each state has sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs, to the exclusion of all external powers, on the principle of non-interference in another state's domestic affairs, and that each state (no matter how large or small)

1372-399: The Westphalian system, cities are subsumed within states. Before the Westphalian system, cities were not necessarily seen as internal to states. Before the Westphalian system, the closest geopolitical system was the "Chanyuan system" established in East Asia in 1005 through the Treaty of Chanyuan , which, like the Westphalian peace treaties, designated national borders between the states of

1421-460: The basis for rivalry, not community of states; exclusion, not integration." In 1999, British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a speech in Chicago where he "set out a new, post-Westphalian, 'doctrine of the international community. ' " Blair argued that globalization had made the Westphalian approach anachronistic. Blair was later referred to by The Daily Telegraph as "the man who ushered in

1470-635: The beginning of the modern international system, in which external powers should avoid interfering in another country's domestic affairs. The backdrop of this was the previously held idea that Europe was supposed to be under the umbrella of a single Christian protectorate or empire; governed spiritually by the Pope, and temporally by one rightful emperor, such as that of the Holy Roman Empire . The then-emerging Reformation had undermined this as Protestant-controlled states were less willing to respect

1519-566: The collection of data beyond fires to include the full range of fire department activity on a national scale. It is a true all-incident reporting system. Within the NFIRS states, participating local fire departments fill out the Incident and Casualty reports as fires occur. They forward the completed incidents via paper forms, computer media or the Internet to their state office where the data

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1568-480: The concept to the eponymous peace treaties which ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and Eighty Years' War (1568–1648). The principle of non-interference was then further developed in the 18th century. The Westphalian system reached its peak in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it has faced recent challenges from advocates of humanitarian intervention . A series of treaties made up the Peace of Westphalia , which has been considered by political scientists to be

1617-582: The domestic affairs of another was less frequent between 1850 and 1900 than in most previous and subsequent periods (i.e. Napoleonic , the Great War , the Second World War ). After the end of the Cold War , the United States and Western Europe began talking of a post-Westphalian order in which countries could intervene against other countries under the context of human rights abuses. Critics of

1666-459: The hegemonic ambitions of individual states that had emerged following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, a rejection which took the form of closer meshing of vital interests and the transfer of nation-state sovereign rights to supranational European institutions." The European Union 's concept of shared sovereignty is also somewhat contrary to historical views of Westphalian sovereignty, as it provides for external agents to influence and interfere in

1715-675: The internal affairs of its member countries. In a 2008 article, Phil Williams links the rise of terrorism and violent non-state actors ( VNSAs ), which pose a threat to the Westphalian sovereignty of the state , to globalization . Interventions such as in Cambodia by Vietnam (the Cambodian–Vietnamese War ) or in Bangladesh (then a part of Pakistan ) by India (the Bangladesh Liberation War and

1764-453: The language of constitutional law ) is derived from the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Structured in accordance with state law (including state constitutions and state statutes ), state governments share

1813-427: The last word on issues of state law and can be overruled only on issues of federal law by the U.S. Supreme Court. The structure of courts and the methods of selecting judges is determined by each state's Constitution or legislature. Most states have at least one trial-level court and an intermediate appeals court from which only some cases are appealed to the highest court. Delaware has a unique equity court called

1862-457: The mid-20th century onward from a variety of viewpoints. Much of the debate has turned on the ideas of internationalism and globalization , which some say conflicts with the Doctrine of the two swords ideal of self-sovereignty. The origins of Westphalian sovereignty have been traced in the scholarly literature to the eponymous Peace of Westphalia (1648). The peace treaties put an end to

1911-546: The modern international system of sovereign states and is enshrined in the United Nations Charter , which states that "nothing ... shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state." According to the principle, every state, no matter how large or small, has an equal right to sovereignty. Political scientists have traced

1960-508: The offices of Lieutenant Governor (often on a joint ticket with the Governor) and Attorney General , Secretary of State , auditors (or comptrollers or controllers), Treasurer , Commissioner of Agriculture, Commissioner (or Superintendent) of Education , and Commissioner of Insurance . Each state government is free to organize its executive departments and agencies in any way it likes. This has resulted in substantial diversity among

2009-495: The post-Westphalian era". Others have also asserted that globalization has superseded the Westphalian system. In 2000, Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer referred to the Peace of Westphalia in his Humboldt Speech, which argued that the system of European politics set up by Westphalia was obsolete: "The core of the concept of Europe after 1945 was and still is a rejection of the European balance-of-power principle and

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2058-434: The post-Westphalian policy have argued that such intervention would be and has been used to continue processes similar to standard Euro-American colonialism, and that the colonial powers always used ideas similar to "humanitarian intervention" to justify colonialism, slavery, and similar practices. China and Russia have used their United Nations Security Council veto power to block what they see as American attempts to violate

2107-590: The same structural model as the federal system , with three branches of government— executive , legislative , and judicial . The governments of the 13 states that formed the original Union under the Constitution trace their roots back to the colonial governments of the Thirteen Colonies . Most of the states admitted to the Union after the original 13 have been formed from organized territories established and governed by Congress in accord with its plenary power under Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of

2156-404: The sovereignty of other nations, perceiving it as imperialistic expansion under the guise of humanitarian intervention. The end of the Cold War saw increased international integration and, arguably, the erosion of Westphalian sovereignty. Much of the literature was primarily concerned with criticizing realist models of international politics in which the notion of the state as a unitary agent

2205-747: The states with regard to every aspect of how their governments are organized. Most state governments traditionally use the department as the standard highest-level component of the executive branch, in that the secretary of a department is normally considered to be a member of the Governor's cabinet and serves as the main interface between the Governor and all agencies in his or her assigned portfolio. A department in turn usually consists of several divisions, offices, and/or agencies. A state government may also include various boards, commissions, councils, corporations, offices, or authorities, which may either be subordinate to an existing department or division, or independent altogether. The judicial branch in most states has

2254-471: The term "General Court". In the 49 bicameral legislatures, the upper house is called the "Senate". Until 1964, state senators were generally elected from districts that were not necessarily equal in population. In some cases state senate districts were based partly on county lines. In the vast majority of states, the Senate districts provided proportionately greater representation to rural areas. However, in

2303-689: The threats posed by failed states to neighboring countries and the world as a whole. Although the Westphalian system developed in early modern Europe , its staunchest defenders can now be found in the non-Western world. The presidents of China and Russia issued a joint statement in 2001 vowing to "counter attempts to undermine the fundamental norms of the international law with the help of concepts such as 'humanitarian intervention' and 'limited sovereignty ' ". China and Russia have used their United Nations Security Council veto power to block what they see as American violations of state sovereignty in Syria. Russia

2352-546: Was laid out in the mid-18th century by Swiss jurist Emer de Vattel . States became the primary institutional agents in an interstate system of relations. The Peace of Westphalia is said to have ended attempts to impose supranational authority on European states. The "Westphalian" doctrine of states as independent agents was bolstered by the rise in 19th-century thoughts of 'classical' nationalism , under which legitimate states were assumed to correspond to nations , defined as groups of people united by language and culture. In

2401-536: Was left out of the original Westphalian system in 1648, but post-Soviet Russia has seen Westphalian sovereignty as a means to balance American power by encouraging a multipolar world order . Some in the West also speak favourably of Westphalian sovereignty. American political scientist Stephen Walt urged U.S. President Donald Trump to return to Westphalian principles, calling it a "sensible course" for American foreign policy. Westphalian sovereignty, Gardner argues,

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