Polity

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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ferguson |first1=Yale |authorlink2=Richard W. Mansbach |last2=Mansbach |first2=Richard W. |year=1996 |title=Polities: Authority, Identities, and Change |location=Columbia, South Carolina |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=1570031282 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Corry | first1=Olaf | title=What is a (Global) polity? | journal=Review of International Studies | date=2010 | volume=36 | pages=157–180 | doi=10.1017/S0260210510000975 | url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210510000975 }}</ref> It is the unit or entity of a political community or body politic.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Collins | first1=Stephanie | last2=Lawford-Smith | first2=Holly | title=We the People: Is the Polity the State? | journal=Journal of the American Philosophical Association | date=2021 | volume=7 | pages=78–97 | doi=10.1017/apa.2020.15 | url=https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2020.15 }}</ref>

== Overview == [[File:Leviathan frontispiece cropped British Library.jpg|thumb|upright|Frontispiece of ''Leviathan'', 1690]] In geopolitics, a polity can manifest in different forms such as a province, a nation, 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. The term ''country'' may refer to a variety of types of polity: usually to a sovereign state, but also to a state with limited recognition, a constituent country of a sovereign state, or a dependent territory.<ref name="Fowler Bunck 1996 pp. 381–404">{{cite journal |last1=Fowler |first1=Michael Ross |last2=Bunck |first2=Julie Marie |year=1996 |title=What constitutes the sovereign state? |journal=Review of International Studies |publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=381–404 |doi=10.1017/s0260210500118637 |issn=0260-2105 |s2cid=145809847}}</ref><ref name="World Population by Country 2024 (Live) 1945 w673">{{cite web |date=June 26, 1945 |title=Countries Not in the United Nations 2024 |url=https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-not-in-the-un |access-date=March 2, 2024 |website=World Population by Country 2024 (Live)}}</ref><ref name="academic.oup.com i784">{{cite book |last1=Talmon |first1=Stefan |title=Recognition of Governments in International Law: With Particular Reference to Governments in Exile |publisher=Oxford Academic |year=2001 |chapter=Recognition and its Variants |access-date=March 2, 2024 |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/43016/chapter-abstract/361359523?redirectedFrom=fulltext}}</ref>

A polity may encapsulate a multitude of organizations. Many of these form (or are involved in) the administrative apparatus of contemporary nation states: such as their subordinate civil, regional, and local government authorities.<ref>''Black's Law Dictionary'', 4th ed. (1968). West Publishing Co.</ref><ref>''Uricich v. Kolesar'', 54 Ohio App. 309, 7 N.E. 2d 413.</ref>

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.<ref>Hobbes, Thomas (1651). [http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/authors/hobbes ''Leviathan'']. Retrieved 2 January 2019.</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|Politics}} * ''Kokutai'' *Nation * Politeia * Political system

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == {{Wiktionary}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060629232259/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-11 "Analogy of the Body Politic"] – at the ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'' *[https://www.britannica.com/topic/polity Polity] at the Encyclopædia Britannica

Category:Government