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Jump to navigationJump to searchCreated page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame ==Etymology== The English noun '''commonwealth''' in the sense meaning "public welfare; general [[good...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Commonwealth.jpg|right|frame]]
==Etymology==
The [[English]] noun '''commonwealth''' in the sense [[meaning]] "[[public]] welfare; general [[good]] or advantage" dates from the fifteenth century. The [[original]] phrase "the common-wealth" or "the common weal" (echoed in the modern synonym "public weal") comes from the old [[meaning]] of "[[wealth]]," which is "well-[[being]]." The term [[literally]] meant "common well-being". In the seventeenth century the definition of "commonwealth" expanded from its [[original]] sense of "public welfare" or "commonweal," to mean "a [[state]] in which the supreme [[power]] is vested in the people; a republic or [[democratic]] state."
The term commonwealth has its [[root]] in the [[complex]] [[Latin]] [[concept]] ''res publica''.
*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/15th_Century 15th century]
==Definitions==
*1 archaic : commonweal
*2 : a nation, [[state]], or other [[political]] [[unit]]: as
:a : one founded on [[law]] and united by compact or tacit [[agreement]] of the people for the common good
:b : one in which supreme [[authority]] is vested in the people
:c : republic
*3 capitalized a : the [[English]] state from the [[death]] of [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I Charles I] in 1649 to the Restoration in 1660
:b : protectorate
*4 : a state of the United States —used officially of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia
*5 capitalized : a federal [[union]] of constituent states —used officially of Australia
*6 often capitalized : an [[association]] of self-governing [[autonomous]] states more or less loosely [[associated]] in a common allegiance (as to the British crown)
*7 often capitalized : a [[political]] unit having local [[autonomy]] but voluntarily united with the United States —used officially of Puerto Rico and of the Northern Mariana Islands
==Description==
A term first used to describe the [[ideal]] state in which the [[public]] [[good]] was realized. The Cromwellian state, 1649–60, described itself as the Commonwealth. [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes Thomas Hobbes] (1588–1679), the [[political]] [[theorist]], wrote of the 'common weal', a situation of stable [[government]] and [[agreed]] [[values]] which citizens would accept and defend. The first journal of the Socialist League, founded by [[William Morris]] (1834–96) in 1884, was Commonweal. Four of the earliest British American colonies called themselves commonwealths when they became [[American]] states. In the case of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania this reflected their Puritan origins.
The term today refers to [[associations]] of [[states]]. The former British Empire became the Commonwealth after the Statute of Westminster in 1931 declared that the self-governing dominions — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa — were [[sovereign]] under the British Crown. As such, they declared war separately on Germany in 1939. Later members, from India in 1947 onwards, have usually declared themselves republics with presidents; but they have accepted the British sovereign as 'Head of the Commonwealth'. Hence the Commonwealth is a looser [[association]] than it was. Another Commonwealth is that of Independent States, founded in 1991 and including all the former Soviet republics except the Baltic states. It remains to be seen how [[dominated]] by Russia the CIS will be.
[[Category: Political Science]]
==Etymology==
The [[English]] noun '''commonwealth''' in the sense [[meaning]] "[[public]] welfare; general [[good]] or advantage" dates from the fifteenth century. The [[original]] phrase "the common-wealth" or "the common weal" (echoed in the modern synonym "public weal") comes from the old [[meaning]] of "[[wealth]]," which is "well-[[being]]." The term [[literally]] meant "common well-being". In the seventeenth century the definition of "commonwealth" expanded from its [[original]] sense of "public welfare" or "commonweal," to mean "a [[state]] in which the supreme [[power]] is vested in the people; a republic or [[democratic]] state."
The term commonwealth has its [[root]] in the [[complex]] [[Latin]] [[concept]] ''res publica''.
*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/15th_Century 15th century]
==Definitions==
*1 archaic : commonweal
*2 : a nation, [[state]], or other [[political]] [[unit]]: as
:a : one founded on [[law]] and united by compact or tacit [[agreement]] of the people for the common good
:b : one in which supreme [[authority]] is vested in the people
:c : republic
*3 capitalized a : the [[English]] state from the [[death]] of [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I Charles I] in 1649 to the Restoration in 1660
:b : protectorate
*4 : a state of the United States —used officially of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia
*5 capitalized : a federal [[union]] of constituent states —used officially of Australia
*6 often capitalized : an [[association]] of self-governing [[autonomous]] states more or less loosely [[associated]] in a common allegiance (as to the British crown)
*7 often capitalized : a [[political]] unit having local [[autonomy]] but voluntarily united with the United States —used officially of Puerto Rico and of the Northern Mariana Islands
==Description==
A term first used to describe the [[ideal]] state in which the [[public]] [[good]] was realized. The Cromwellian state, 1649–60, described itself as the Commonwealth. [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes Thomas Hobbes] (1588–1679), the [[political]] [[theorist]], wrote of the 'common weal', a situation of stable [[government]] and [[agreed]] [[values]] which citizens would accept and defend. The first journal of the Socialist League, founded by [[William Morris]] (1834–96) in 1884, was Commonweal. Four of the earliest British American colonies called themselves commonwealths when they became [[American]] states. In the case of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania this reflected their Puritan origins.
The term today refers to [[associations]] of [[states]]. The former British Empire became the Commonwealth after the Statute of Westminster in 1931 declared that the self-governing dominions — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa — were [[sovereign]] under the British Crown. As such, they declared war separately on Germany in 1939. Later members, from India in 1947 onwards, have usually declared themselves republics with presidents; but they have accepted the British sovereign as 'Head of the Commonwealth'. Hence the Commonwealth is a looser [[association]] than it was. Another Commonwealth is that of Independent States, founded in 1991 and including all the former Soviet republics except the Baltic states. It remains to be seen how [[dominated]] by Russia the CIS will be.
[[Category: Political Science]]
