Polity
Overview
!Frontispiece of [Leviathan), 1690](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/LeviathanfrontispiececroppedBritishLibrary.jpg/250px-LeviathanfrontispiececroppedBritishLibrary.jpg)
Overview
A polity can also be defined either as a faction within a larger (usually state) entity or at different times as the entity itself. For example, Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan are parts of their own separate and distinct polity. However, they are also members of the sovereign state of Iraq which is itself a polity, albeit one which is much less specific and, therefore, much less cohesive. Consequently, it is possible for an individual to belong to more than one polity at a time.
Overview
Thomas Hobbes was a highly significant figure in the conceptualisation of polities, in particular of states. Hobbes considered notions of the state and the body politic in Leviathan), his most notable work.
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