polity
American Heritage Dictionary:
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pol·i·ty
(pŏl'ĭ-tē) 
n., pl., -ties.
n., pl., -ties.
- The form of government of a nation, state, church, or organization.
- An organized society, such as a nation, having a specific form of government: "His alien philosophy found no roots in the American polity" (New York Times).
[Obsolete French politie, from Old French, from Late Latin polītīa, the Roman government. See police.]
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means (1) 'a form or process of civil government or constitution', and (2) 'a society or country as a political entity'. It should not be confused with policy, in its meaning 'a course or principle of action'.
| politics, political correctness, politic, political | |
| polytechnic, pond, poof |
Roget's Thesaurus:
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polity
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[De]
Generally, a complex of decision-making roles that relate a society to the goals of its individual members through collective decisions. Colin Renfrew used the term in a particular archaeological context to refer to small-scale politically autonomous early states such as can be seen in Mycenaean Greece or Etruscans Italy.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'polity'
- Philosophies, Principles, and Parties - polity: specific form of any political organization or unit
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Polity
For other uses, see Polity (disambiguation).
A polity is a state or one of its subordinate civil authorities, such as a province, prefecture, county, municipality, city, or district.[1] It is generally understood to mean a geographic area with a corresponding government. Thomas Hobbes considered bodies politic in this sense in Leviathan.[2] In previous centuries, body politic was also understood to mean "the physical person of the sovereign" (in monarchies and despotisms, the emperor, king, or dictator, and, in republics, the electorate). Today, it may also refer to a representation of the ethnic or gender demographics of a region; for example, in many liberal democracies, cabinets are chosen to represent the body politic.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ See: Black's Law Dictionary, 4th ed., West Publishing Co., (1968), and Uricich v. Kolesar, 54 Ohio App. 309, 7 N.E. 2d 413.
- ^ Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, (1651); http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/hobblev2.pdf; accessed 28 November 2008.
External links
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Analogy of the Body Politic (elaboration of correspondences between society or the state and the individual human body)
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Translations:
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Polity
Dansk (Danish)
n. - statsdannelse
Nederlands (Dutch)
politieke organisatie, staatsvorm, regeringsstelsel, organisatie van een religieuze groep
Français (French)
n. - régime politique, État
Deutsch (German)
n. - Staat, Gemeinwesen, Verfassung
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - καθεστώς, πολίτευμα, πολιτεία, πολιτική συγκρότηση
Português (Portuguese)
n. - Estado (m), sociedade organizada (f)
Русский (Russian)
политическая организация, политическая система
Español (Spanish)
n. - gobierno, estado, constitución
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - statsform, -skick, författning, statsbildning, stat
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
政治组织, 政治, 国家组织
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 政治組織, 政治, 國家組織
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 政治形態, 政治組織体, 国民
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) حكومه, شكل او نظام الحكم, دوله
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - שלטון, מדינה, ממשל, משטר
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Polity.
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