State
organised community living under a system of government; either a sovereign state, constituent state, or federated state / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see State (disambiguation).
In politics, a state is the government of a country which has control over a geographic area or territory. States have three main features:
- Control over a geographic area, or territory
- A people, the population of the state.
- Institutions which have the power to make laws.
There are different forms of government a state may have, for example a republic or a monarchy. Sometimes states form their own countries. In its origin the United States had different kinds of states, but they agreed to join together. Most states also have armed forces, civil service, law and police.
Government institutions in a country are commonly referred to as "the state".