Administrative divisions are divisions of a political division A political division is a term of art of geography defining the concept of a geographic region accepted to be in the jurisdiction of a particular government entity. The particular government entity varies as each organizes its operations by further divisions to further its tasks and satisfy its responsibilities. In other words, they are designated portions of a country. They are also called subnational entities. They are each granted a certain degree of autonomy An autonomous area is an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or freedom from an external authority. Typically it is either geographically distinct from the country or is populated by a national minority. Countries that include autonomous areas are often federacies. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies,, and are required to manage themselves through their own local governments Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state. The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government. "Local government" only acts within powers delegated to it by. Countries are divided up into these smaller units to make managing their land and the affairs of their people easier. For example, a country may be divided into provinces A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state (or states A federated state, commonly simply referred to as a state, is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federal union. Such states differ from sovereign states, in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers to a federal government. A federated state holds administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic), which in turn are divided into counties A county is a land area of local government within a country. A county may have cities and towns within its area. Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count (comte, conde, Graf), which in turn may be divided in whole or in part into municipalities A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council. These are only a few of the names given to administrative subdivisions; more examples are provided below.
Administrative divisions are a type of country subdivision Country subdivision refers to the division of a sovereign state's territory for the sake of its administration, description or other such purpose. The resulting units of division are known generically as "country subdivisions". Unlike geographical or geomorphological areas such as basins, deserts, valleys and the like, country, and can overlap with the other types. The other types of country subdivision generally don't have governments.
Administrative divisions are conceptually separate from dependent areas A dependent territory, dependent area or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a State, in that the former are included in the core or mainland of the respective state A sovereign state, commonly simply referred to as a state, is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states,.
Examples of administrative divisions
English terms
In many of the following terms corresponding to British cultural influence, areas of relatively low mean population density might bear a title of an entity one would expect to be either larger or smaller. There is no fixed rule, for "all politics is local"[1] as is perhaps well demonstrated by their relative lack of systemic order. In the realm of self-government, any of these can and does occur along a stretch of road—which for the most part is passing through rural unsettled countryside. Since the terms are administrative political subdivisions of the local regional government their exact relationship and definitions are subject to home rule In the United Kingdom, it has traditionally referred to self-government, or devolution or independence, for constituent nations , and at one point Ireland. Home rule also refers analogously to the process and mechanisms of self-government by municipalities and counties in many countries with respect to their immediately-superior level of considerations, tradition, as well as state A sovereign state, commonly simply referred to as a state, is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states, statute law Statutory law or statute law is written law set down by a legislature (as opposed to regulatory law promulgated by the executive branch or common law of the judiciary) and local governmental (administrative) definition and control. In the British cultural legacy, most regional entities begin with fairly expansive counties which encompass an appreciable territorial area and proceed down in size to smaller entities.
Within those entities are the large and small cities or towns, which may or may not be the county seat A county seat is a term for an administrative center for a county or civil parish, primarily used in the United States. In the Northeast United States, the statutory term often is shire town, but colloquially county seat is the term in use there. Parts of the Canadian Maritimes also use the term shire town. In England, Wales and Ireland, the term. Some of the world's larger cities culturally, if not officially, span into multiple counties and those crossing state or provincial boundaries culturally are quite common as well, but are rarely incorporated within the same municipal government. Many sister cities share a water boundary which quite often serves as a border of both cities and counties. For example, Cambridge Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent universities, Harvard University and the Massachusetts and Boston, Massachusetts Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ ) is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England". Boston appear to the casual traveler as one large city, while locally they each are quite culturally different and occupy different counties.
Urban or rural regions:
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- Borough A borough is an administrative division of various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely or alternatively, "boro"
- Burgh A Burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United Kingdom. Following local government reorganisation in 1975 the title of "
- City A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law. For example, an article of incorporation
- Shire A shire is a traditional division found in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in Australia
- Town A town is a settlement ranging from a few hundred to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition. Usually, a "town" is thought of as larger than a village but smaller than a "city",
- Township A township is a settlement which has the status and powers of a unit of local government. Specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country
- Village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon, as well as Hampstead Village in
- Commune A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes. Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times
- County A county is a land area of local government within a country. A county may have cities and towns within its area. Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count (comte, conde, Graf)
- Constituency A constituency is any cohesive body of people bound by shared identity, goals, or loyalty. Constituency can be used to describe a business's customer base and shareholders, or a charity's donors or those it serves. In politics, a constituency can mean either the people from whom an individual or organization hopes to attract support, or the people - usually refers to an electoral division (which is not an administrative division), but in Namibia and in Canton of St. Gallen The Canton of St. Gallen (German: Kanton St. Gallen ) is a canton of Switzerland. St. Gallen is located in the north east of Switzerland. It covers an area of 2,026 km², and has a population of 465,937 (2007) of which 97,461 (or 20.9%) are foreigners. The capital is St. Gallen. Spelling variations include: St. Gall, Saint Gall, Saint Gallen, in Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south,, "constituency" means "administrative division".
- Department (administrative division) In the terminology of political geography and historiography a national department is an administrative political subdivision of a country established by the cognizant (usually legislative) government authority holding sovereign power for the territory
- Despotate Despot , was a Byzantine court title, also granted in the states under Byzantine influence, such as the Latin Empire, Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Empire of Trebizond. In the last two hundred years or so, the term "despot" is perceived negatively, as it is associated with despotism, but the original title had no such connotations. This (not subnational)
- District Districts are a type of administrative division, in some countries managed by a local government. They vary greatly in size, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipalities, or subdivisions of municipalities
- Division In the People's Republic of China,also there exits a similar subdivision, it is translated as Prefecture in English, and was given different Chinese names in the history, the subdivision is a level of division between the province(first-level political entity of China,as the States in India or provinces in Pakistan) and county(theoretically the
- Duchy Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era . In contrast, others were subordinate districts of those kingdoms that unified either partially or completely during the Medieval era (such as England, France, and Spain) (partial subnational)
- Empire The term empire derives from the Latin imperium. Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch (emperor, empress) or an oligarchy. Geopolitically, the term empire has denoted very different, territorially-extreme states — at the strong end, the extensive Spanish Empire (16th (not subnational)
- Kingdom A 'Monarchy' is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or until abdication, and "is wholly set apart from all other members of the state." The person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world
- Local council
- Municipality A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council
- rural municipality A rural municipality, often abbreviated RM, is a form of municipality in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, perhaps best comparable to counties or townships in the western United States
- regional municipality A Regional Municipality is a type of Canadian municipal government similar to and at the same municipal government level as a county, although the specific structure and servicing responsibilities may vary from place to place. Regional municipalities were formed in highly populated areas where it was considered more efficient to provide certain
- regional county municipality The term regional county municipality or RCM is used in the Canadian province of Quebec to designate one of 86 county-like political and geographic units. In most cases, they are also census divisions. Regional County Municipalities are a supralocal type of "Regional Municipality" and are still commonly referred to as counties. "RCM&
- Okrug Okrug Abkhaz language: оқрҿс is an administrative division of some Eastern European Slavic states. The word "okrug" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "district", or "region". In meaning, the word is similar to the German term Bezirk ("district") and
- Parish A parish is an administrative division used by several countries and one U.S. State: Louisiana
- Periphery:
- Prefecture Prefecture indicates the office, seat, territorial circumscription of a Prefect. The term prefecture is also used to refer to offices analogous to prefectures
- Principality A principality is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or (in the widest sense) a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince (partial subnational)
- Province A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state
- Region Region is most commonly a geographical term that is used in various ways among the different branches of geography. In general, a region is a medium-scale area of land or water, smaller than the whole areas of interest , and larger than a specific site. A region may be seen as a collection of smaller units (as in "the New England states")
- Republic A republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica, which can be translated as "a public affair" (partial subnational)
- Riding A riding is an administrative jurisdiction or electoral district, particularly in several current or former Commonwealth countries
- Indigenous:
- Tribe A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states
- Indian reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are about 310 Indian reservations in the United States, meaning not all of the country's 550-plus recognized tribes have a reservation — some tribes have more than one reservation, while
- Indian reserve
- Band
- State
- Special Administrative Region
- Territory
- Voivodship
Native terms
See: List of terms for administrative divisions
Consistent translation from original language is sometimes is difficult.
Compare
- Sovereign state, a national or supra-national division.
- Country, a national or supra-national division.
- Empire, a supra-national division.
See also
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Subnational entities |
- Political division
- ISO 3166-2 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 2
- List of terms for administrative divisions
- List of etymologies of country subdivision names
- List of country subdivisions by population
- List of the largest administrative divisions by area
- Table of administrative country subdivisions by country
- List of administrative division name changes
- List of subnational monarchs
- List of provinces and states in North America
External links
- United Nations' Second Administrative Level Boundaries (SALB) dataset
- "Statoids" - an international convention with standard two-letter, multi-level summaries (e.g. GH.AH.AE represents Adansi East in the Accra Home region in Ghana)
Categories: Administrative divisions | Country subdivisions | Subdivisions by country
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since 1989 the Third Polish Republic This reorganization of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of local government reform acts of 1973 1975 In place of the three level administrative division voivodeship
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Q. A commune is the lowest form of administrative division in the french Republic. -reword-
Asked by AeVAeN - Tue Feb 10 21:29:37 2009 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments
A. The lowest form of administrative division in the French republic is a commune ;)
Answered by Josh S - Tue Feb 10 21:32:42 2009
