- The people of a nation or state; the body politic.
- A nation or state governed by the people; a republic.
- Commonwealth
- Used to refer to some U.S. states, namely, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
- Used to refer to a self-governing, autonomous political unit voluntarily associated with the United States, namely, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
- often Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations.
- The English state and government from the death of Charles I in 1649 to the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, including the Protectorate of 1653 to 1659.
- Archaic. The public good; commonweal.
commonwealth
Dictionary:
com·mon·wealth (kŏm'ən-wĕlth')  |
| 5min Related Video: commonwealth |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: commonwealth |
For more information on commonwealth, visit Britannica.com.
| British History: Commonwealth |
The Commonwealth took its origins from a vote by the Rump Parliament on 4 January 1649, ‘That the people are, under God, the original of all just power’, and that they, the Commons, possessed supreme authority as the people's representatives. Two days later they set up the High Court of Justice which tried Charles I. The abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords followed, and another brief Act on 19 May formally declared England to be a Commonwealth. From February, executive authority was vested in a Council of State, accountable to the Rump, elected annually by it, and drawn mainly from its own members.
The Commonwealth expanded to include Scotland and Ireland after the army's conquest of those countries. The Rump's materialist outlook and evident aversion to ‘a godly reformation’ brought it under increasing pressure from the army during 1652 to make way for a successor. Eventually it did introduce a bill for a new parliament to meet in November 1653, but its contents (which do not survive) left the army unsatisfied, and Cromwell in a rage expelled the Rump on 20 April. The brief experiment of a nominated assembly (‘Barebone's Parliament’, July-December 1653) ended in its own abdication, and on 16 December the Commonwealth gave way to the Cromwellian Protectorate. It was briefly restored in May 1659, after a coup by the army against Richard Cromwell, but renewed quarrels between the officers and the Rumpers soon exposed the political bankruptcy of both. General Monck was enthusiastically acclaimed when he opened the way to the Restoration by readmitting the members ‘secluded’ in Pride's Purge on 21 February 1660.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: commonwealth |
commonwealth, form of administration signifying government by the common consent of the people. To Locke and Hobbes and other 17th-century writers the term meant an organized political community similar to what is meant in the 20th cent. by the word state. Certain states of the United States are known as commonwealths (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky), and the federated states of Australia are known collectively as the Commonwealth of Australia. In the same collective sense, the now independent components of the former British Empire and Britain's remaining dependencies are described as the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth in English history was the government set up by the victorious army power following the English civil war and the execution (1649) of King Charles I. The Commonwealth was dominated from the outset by Oliver Cromwell, who by the Instrument of Government (1653) was made lord protector of the Commonwealth. The subsequent government is usually known as the Protectorate, though the Commonwealth formally continued until Restoration in 1660.
| Law Dictionary: Commonwealth |
The public; the people; a government which concerns itself with the rights of the people rather than the rulers. From "common weal," a term for the public good. Four of the fifty states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) use "Commonwealth of" rather than "State of."
| History Dictionary: Commonwealth |
A government established in Britain and Ireland in 1649, after the execution of King Charles I. It was in the form of a
| Devil's Dictionary: commonwealth |
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce
n.
An administrative entity operated by an incalculable multitude of political parasites, logically active but fortuitously efficient.
This commonwealth's capitol's corridors view,
So thronged with a hungry and indolent crew
Of clerks, pages, porters and all attaches
Whom rascals appoint and the populace pays
That a cat cannot slip through the thicket of shins
Nor hear its own shriek for the noise of their chins.
On clerks and on pages, and porters, and all,
Misfortune attend and disaster befall!
May life be to them a succession of hurts;
May fleas by the bushel inhabit their shirts;
May aches and diseases encamp in their bones,
Their lungs full of tubercles, bladders of stones;
May microbes, bacilli, their tissues infest,
And tapeworms securely their bowels digest;
May corn-cobs be snared without hope in their hair,
And frequent impalement their pleasure impair.
Disturbed be their dreams by the awful discourse
Of audible sofas sepulchrally hoarse,
By chairs acrobatic and wavering floors --
The mattress that kicks and the pillow that snores!
Sons of cupidity, cradled in sin!
Your criminal ranks may the death angel thin,
Avenging the friend whom I couldn't work in.
K.Q.
| Word Tutor: commonwealth |
IN BRIEF: The citizens of a nation or state.
The new laws were a benefit for the entire commonwealth.
| Wikipedia: Commonwealth |
For other uses, see Commonwealth (disambiguation).
The English noun commonwealth dates from the fifteenth century. The original phrase "common-wealth" or "the common weal" comes from the old meaning of "wealth," which is "well-being." The term literally meant "common well-being." Thus commonwealth originally meant a state or nation-state governed for the common good as opposed to an authoritarian state governed for the benefit of a given class of owners. Commonwealth derives from the Latin term res publica, a broad concept which is also sometimes translated as "public affairs" or "the state" in certain contexts. Res publica is also the term from which the English word republic arises.
Today the term is more general and means a political community.
The type of community indicated by the term commonwealth varies. For instance, in different contexts it might indicate:
- a political unit founded in law by agreement of the people for the common good;
- a federated union of constituent states;
- a community of sovereign states;
- a republic;
- a democratic constitutional monarchy.
Outside of those states that call themselves commonwealths, "the Commonwealth" normally refers to the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations.
Contents |
Historic Usage of the style Commonwealth
Great Britain
The Commonwealth of England was the official name of the political unit (de facto military rule in the name of parliamentary supremacy) that replaced the kingdoms of Scotland and England (after the English Civil War) under the rule of Oliver Cromwell and his son and successor Richard from 1649 to 1660. It formed the first republic in the English-speaking world, though this quickly devolved into a de facto monarchy. The Cromwellian Commonwealth is sometimes referred to as the Old Commonwealth in a British context.
Former Labour MP Tony Benn introduced a Commonwealth of Britain Bill several times, which would abolish the monarchy and establish a British republic. It has never reached a second reading.
Iceland
The Icelandic Commonwealth or the Icelandic Free State (Icelandic: Þjóðveldið) was the state existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king in 1262. It was initially established by a public consisting largely of recent immigrants from Norway who had fled the unification of that country under King Harald Fairhair.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Commonwealth of Poland
Republic is still an alternative translation of the traditional name of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Wincenty Kadłubek (Vincent Kadlubo, 1160–1223) used for the first time the original Latin term res publica in the context of Poland in his "Chronicles of the Kings and Princes of Poland." The name was used officially for the confederal country formed by Poland and Lithuania 1569–1795.
It is also often referred as "Nobles' Commonwealth" (1505–1795, i.e. before the union). In contemporary political doctrine of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, "our state is a Republic (Commonwealth) under presidency of the King." The commonwealth introduced a doctrine of religious tolerance (see Warsaw Confederation), had its own parliament Sejm (although elections were restricted to the gentry or szlachta) and elected kings, who were bound to certain contracts Pacta conventa from the beginning of the reign. The foundation stones of the Commonwealth (also called the Golden Freedoms) used to be
- free election of the king
- Pacta conventa, a binding pledge agreed to by the King on his election
- rokosz, the right of rebellion against kings who did not rule in accordance with their pledge
- liberum veto (a later development), the right for a single representative to veto the entire proceedings of the Sejm
- confœderatio (confederation), a military organisation of the citizens for the attainment of common political aims.
"A commonwealth of good counsaile" was the title of the 1607 English translation of the work of Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki "De optimo senatore" that presented to English readers many of the ideas present in the political system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
International
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations — formerly the "British Commonwealth" — is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, most of which are former British colonies, or dependencies of these colonies (with two exceptions, Mozambique, which was a Portuguese possession)and Cameroon[1] ( which was partly a German territory and partly French and British colony)plus the United Kingdom itself. The Commonwealth's membership includes both republics and monarchies. The hereditary head of the Commonwealth of Nations is Queen Elizabeth II. She also reigns as monarch directly in a number of states, known as Commonwealth realms, notably the United Kingdom, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Jamaica and New Zealand. The Commonwealth of Nations is sometimes referred to as the New Commonwealth in a British context.
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a loose alliance or confederation consisting of 10 of the 15 former Soviet Republics, the exceptions being Turkmenistan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Georgia. Georgia left the CIS in August 2008 after a clash with Russia over South Osetia. Its creation signaled the dissolution of the Soviet Union, its purpose being to "allow a civilized divorce" between the Soviet Republics. The CIS has developed as a forum by which the member-states can co-operate in economics, defense and foreign policy.
National
Australia
The term also served when six Australian colonies federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act created a federal system, in which power is divided between the federal, or national, government and the States — the evolved status of the colonies. The Constitution stipulated that Australia was a constitutional monarchy, where the Head of State is the British (or, since 1942, Australian) monarch, who is represented at the federal level by a Governor-General, and at the state level by six Governors, one for each state. The Parliament of Australia was derived from the British, Canadian and American systems to form a uniquely Australian system. It is largely based on the British Westminster System, adopting many of its practices and precedents, but with a similar structure — House of Representatives, and Senate — to the U.S. Congress. In an Australian context, the term "Commonwealth" (capitalised) thus refers to the federal government and "Commonwealth of Australia" is the official name of the country.
Dominica
The small Caribbean republic of Dominica has used the official style Commonwealth of Dominica since 1970.
The Bahamas
The Bahamas, a Commonwealth realm, uses the official style Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
United States
U.S. states
Four states in the United States officially designate themselves as "commonwealths":
- Kentucky is designated a Commonwealth by the Kentucky Constitution and is known as the "Commonwealth of Kentucky."[2]
- Massachusetts is a Commonwealth,[3] declaring itself as such in its constitution, which states that "The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good."
- Pennsylvania uses the "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" as its official title.[4]
- Virginia has been known as the "Commonwealth of Virginia"[5] since before joining the United States.[1]
U.S. insular areas
"Commonwealth" is also used in the U.S. to describe the political relationship between the United States and the overseas unincorporated territories:
- Commonwealth of the Philippines — formed in 1934, and became independent in 1946.
- Puerto Rico — became a commonwealth[6] in 1952.
- Northern Mariana Islands — became a commonwealth in 1978.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/145151/history/
- ^ http://kentucky.gov: copyright 2009
- ^ http://www.mass.gov: copyright 2009
- ^ http://www.pa.gov: copyright 2009
- ^ http://www.virginia.gov: copyright 2009
- ^ http://welcome.topuertorico.org/government.shtml: copyright 2009
External links
 |
Look up Commonwealth or commonwealth in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Commonwealth of Nations
- The Commonwealth — UK government site
- Commonwealth of Nations Secretariat*
- Commonwealth Foundation
- Royal Commonwealth Society
- Commonwealth of Independent States
- Countries
- United States of America
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Commonwealth |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - stat, samfund, republik
Nederlands (Dutch)
gemenebest, (democratische) republiek, staat (bijv. in V.S.), groep met gemeenschappelijk belang (niet politiek)
Français (French)
n. - Commonwealth
Deutsch (German)
n. - Staat, Commonwealth
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κοινοπολιτεία, (μτφ.) τομέας, σφαίρα
Italiano (Italian)
confederazione
Português (Portuguese)
n. - comunidade (f)
Русский (Russian)
государство, содружество
Español (Spanish)
n. - república, democracia, estado, bien público
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - samvälde, republik, fritt samhälle
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
国民整体, 联邦, 共和国
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 國民整體, 聯邦, 共和國
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 극민, 공화국, 연방, 단체
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 国民, 国家, 共和国, 州, 団体, 連邦
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) رابطه, مجموعه مستقله
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מדינה, קהילייה, מדינה או קהילה עצמאית, בד"כ דמוקרטית, ארגון לא-פוליטי של בעלי עניין משותף
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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