State

State, in political science, generally a group of people inhabiting a specific territory and living according to a common legal and political authority; a body politic or nation. In this definition, the term state includes government; in another usage, the two terms are synonymous.

Among types of states that developed at various times in history were the city-states of ancient Greece, in which sovereignty rested with the free citizens of an independent city. During the Middle Ages, Europe was divided politically into many small principalities, the boundaries and sovereignties of which changed frequently. From this condition of political anarchy, the modern nation-state, which consists of a group of people with the same or similar nationality inhabiting a definite territory, emerged by a gradual process extending over centuries. The type of government has varied, first taking the form of absolute monarchies and later of constitutional monarchies or republics, some of them federations or unions of semi-independent states. In the 20th century totalitarian dictatorships, in which one ruler assumes absolute power, were established in some states.