From Uberpedia, the ultimate online resource
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008) |
Body politic or body politic or corporate means 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 an associated government at whatever level. 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 person of the emperor, the king, the dictator, etc and in republics, the electorate.) It can now also mean representative of the ethnic/gender demographics of a region. For example, in many liberal democracies, cabinets are chosen to represent the body politic.
See also
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)
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/hobbes2.pdf; accessed 28 November 2008.
Related links