State (polity)
A state is an organized community living under a unified political system, the government (in American English, a government). States may be sovereign. The denomination state is also employed to federated states that are members of a federal union, which is the sovereign state. Some states are subject to external sovereignty or hegemony where ultimate sovereignty lies in another state. The state can also be used to refer to the secular branches of government within a state, often as a manner of contrasting them with churches and civilian institutions (civil society).
Read more about State (polity): Definitional Issues, Theories of State Function, Theories of State Legitimacy, Etymology, History
Famous quotes containing the word state:
“A perfect personality ... is only possible in a state of society where man is free to choose the mode of work, the conditions of work, and the freedom to work. One to whom the making of a table, the building of a house, or the tilling of the soil, is what the painting is to the artist and the discovery to the scientist,—the result of inspiration, of intense longing, and deep interest in work as a creative force.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)