(Redirected from Political division of the United States)
The 'political units and divisions of the United States' include:
★
The 50 states (4 of these being officially styled as
Commonwealths), which are typically divided into
counties and
townships, and
incorporated cities,
towns,
villages, and other types of
municipalities, and other autonomous or subordinate
public authorities and institutions. With the exception of the
original 13, each state was
admitted to the Union at a specific time by an act of the U.S. Congress.
★
The District of Columbia, which constitutes the city of Washington, the Capital of the United States. Although the District of Columbia is not a state and does not send Senators or voting Representatives to Congress, residents can vote in presidential elections and are represented in the
Electoral College.
★
Indian reservations are given quasi-independent status. While every reservation is part of a state, and residents vote as residents of the state in which they reside and do pay federal taxes, the reservations are exempt from many state and local laws. The ambiguous nature of their status has both created opportunities (such as gambling in states that normally disallow it) and challenges (such as the unwillingness of some companies to open up shop in a territory where they are not certain what laws will apply to them).
★
Territories of the United States may be ''incorporated'' (part of the United States proper) or ''unincorporated'' (known variously as "possessions", "overseas territories" or "commonwealths") Territories may also be ''organized'' (with self-government explicitly granted by an ''Organic Act'' of the U.S. Congress) or ''unorganized'' (without such direct authorization of self-government). 31 of the current 50 states were
organized incorporated territories before their admission to the Union. Since 1959, the United States has had only one incorporated territory (
Palmyra Atoll), but maintains control of several unincorporated territories, both organized and unorganized.
★ The federal union, which constitutes the United States as a collective of the several states, and as it exercises exclusive jurisdiction over the
military installations, and American
embassies and
consulates located in foreign countries; and until the
District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 had jurisdiction over the local affairs of the District of Columbia.
★ Such quasi-political divisions as
conservation districts and
school districts, which are usually just special, geographically designated subordinate public authorities.
★ Recognized bodies, such as
homeowners associations, which fulfill government functions, and have since been bound by subsequent court decisions to certain restrictions normally applying to local governments.
Altogether, there are an estimated 85,000 extant political entities in the United States. Political units and divisions of the United States are a subset of the total
United States territory.
Political units and system of operation
The primary political unit of the
United States after the federal union is the state. Technically and legally, states are not "divisions" created ''from'' the United States, but units that ''compose'' the US, because the United States and the several states that constitute it operate with a system of parallel
sovereignty. According to numerous decisions of the
United States Supreme Court, the several states and the United States (that is, the federal state which is coextensive with the 50 several states and the
District of Columbia) are sovereign jurisdictions. The sovereignty of the United States is strictly limited to the terms of the
United States Constitution, whereas the sovereignty of each individual state is unlimited, except in two respects: 1. The sovereignty and powers that each state has transferred to the United States via the United States Constitution, and 2. The provisions of its own constitution, which usually (but not always) sets certain parameters for the exercise of the state's sovereignty.
Most states decentralize the administration of their sovereign powers, typically in three tiers but always employing at least two tiers and sometimes more than three tiers. The first tier of decentralization is always the statewide tier, constituted of agencies that operate under direct control of the principal organs of state government - such as bureaus of vital statistics, and departments of motor vehicles or public health. The second tier is always the county (called a ''borough'' in Alaska and a ''parish'' in Louisiana), which is an administrative division of the state. It may also be more than that (e.g., a metropolitan municipality), but it is always an administrative division of the state. The third tier commonly found in many states, especially the Midwest, is the township, which is an administrative division of a county.
Basically, counties exist to provide general local support of state government activities, such as collection of property tax revenues (counties almost never have their own power to tax), but without providing most of the services one associates with municipalities, because counties are usually too big for that purpose. That is where the township comes in, to provide further localized services to the public in areas that are not part of a municipality.
In some states, such as Michigan, state universities are constitutionally autonomous jurisdictions, possessed of a special status somewhat equivalent to that of metropolitan municipality. That is, as bodies corporate, they operate as though they were municipalities but their autonomy from most legislative and executive control makes them equally comparable to administrative divisions of the state, equal or superior to counties.
In some states, cities operate independently of townships. Some cities (and all cities in Virginia) operate outside of the jurisdiction of any county. Cities, which are sometimes called towns, differ from counties and townships in that they are ''not'' administrative divisions of the state. Instead, they are semi-autonomous municipal corporations that are recognized by the state. In essence, the city as municipal corporation is the modern form of the ancient city-state, a sovereign entity that exists today only in the forms of
Monaco,
San Marino,
Singapore, and the
Vatican City.
Divisions of the federal state include, first, the
District of Columbia, which contains the
United States Capitol Building - the seat of the Government of the United States (in contrast to most other countries, where the seat of government is the principal official residence of the president, monarch, or other
head of state - as with Buckingham Palace in United Kingdom, Rideau Hall in Canada, and ''Áras na hUachtarán'' in Ireland). The United States Congress exercises exclusive jurisdiction over this and all other lands owned by the federal government.
Notwithstanding four states officially call themselves "
commonwealth" (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky), which go back to their original founding charters and constitutions. In the federal context, the term 'commonwealth' means an intermediate status between '
territory' and 'state' - both in the sense of "independent
state" and "U.S. state", but such does not apply to the four states that are commonwealths by their own state constitutions. At the Federal level, there is really no distinction, and the term is more of an archaism than one of any true import. However, Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas Islands are territories which are commonwealths associated with the United States. They might someday advance to statehood, or they might become independent - as did the
Philippines in 1946, after it was a
commonwealth of the United States for many years. A territory - whether "
organized" and "
unorganized" has significantly fewer rights in the grand scheme of things than a commonwealth (let alone a state), but it ranks at least a notch above "
possessions" such as
Wake Island, which has no permanent population and thus does not require even a simple territorial
government.
Federal oversight of United States territory
Congress of the United States
Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution defines the extent of the authority that the
U.S. Congress exercises over the territory of the United States:
:''New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.''
:''The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.''
The power of Congress over territorial divisions that are not part of one of the states is exclusive and universal. Once the territory becomes a state of the Union, the state must consent to any changes pertaining to the jurisdiction of that state. This has been violated only once, when a rump legislature formed the State of
West Virginia, seceding from
Virginia, which itself had
seceded from the United States in the months preceding the
American Civil War.
United States Department of the Interior
On
March 3,
1849, the last day of the 30th Congress, a bill was passed to create the
U.S. Department of the Interior to take charge of the internal affairs of ''United States territory''. The Interior Department has a wide range of responsibilities (which include the regulation of territorial governments, the basic responsibilities for public lands, and other various duties).
In contrast to similarly named Departments in other countries, the United States Department of the Interior is not responsible for local government or for civil administration except in the cases of Indian reservations, through the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and island dependencies, through the
Office of Insular Affairs (OIA).
States of the United States
Main articles: U.S. state
At the
Declaration of Independence, the United States consisted of
13 states, former
colonies of the
United Kingdom. In the following years, the number of
states has grown steadily due to expansion to the west, conquest and purchase of lands by the American government, and division of existing states to the current number of
50 United States:
The relationship between the state and national governments is rather complex, because of the country's
federal system. Under United States law, states are considered sovereign entities, meaning that the power of the states is considered to come directly from the people within the states rather than from the federal government. The federal government of the United States was created when sovereign states delegated some of their sovereignty to one central government. The sovereignty they delegated, however, was not complete. The logical extension of this delegation is that the federal government enjoys limited sovereignty, and the states retain whatever sovereignty they never delegated to the federal government. Federal law overrides state law in the areas in which the federal government is empowered to act, but the powers of the federal government are subject to the limited sovereignty delegated by the Constitution of the United States. (The
Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution declares that the powers not delegated to the federal government are retained by the states, but this arguably is mere
truism.)
The
American Civil War and ''
Texas v. White'' established that states do not have the right to secede, and under the Constitution of the United States, and they are not allowed to conduct
foreign policy.
The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The 50 states are divided into distinct sections:
★ the "
continental United States", also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous, or contiguous United States
★
Alaska, an
exclave, which is physically connected only to
Canada
★ the
archipelago of
Hawaii, in the central
Pacific Ocean.
The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the
federal district of the
District of Columbia, which contains the nation's
capital city of Washington, and several overseas
insular areas, the most significant of which are
American Samoa,
Guam, the
Northern Mariana Islands,
Puerto Rico, and the
United States Virgin Islands. Islands gained by the United States in the war against
Spain at the turn of the 20th century were no longer to be considered foreign territory; on the other hand, the
United States Supreme Court declared that they were not automatically covered by the
Constitution and that it was up to the
United States Congress to decide what portions of the Constitution, if any, applied to them. The only remaining exception is
Palmyra Atoll, the United States's only
incorporated territory; it is
unorganized and uninhabited.
The
United States Navy has held a base at a portion of
Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present
Cuban government of
Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly
sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point is moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.
Divisions of U.S. states
Main articles: Local government in the United States
Census Regions and Divisions of United States
Counties in the United States
The states are divided into smaller administrative regions, called
counties in most states — exceptions being
Alaska (parts of the state are organized into subdivisions called
boroughs; the rest of the state's territory that is not included in any borough is divided into "census areas"), and
Louisiana (which is divided into county-equivalents that are called
parishes). There are also
independent cities which are within particular states but not part of any particular county or consolidated city-counties: thirty-nine of these are in
Virginia and others are
San Francisco, California,
Baltimore, Maryland,
St. Louis, Missouri,
Denver, Colorado and
Carson City, Nevada. Counties can include a number of
cities, towns, villages, or
hamlets, or sometimes just a part of a city. Counties have varying degrees of political and legal significance, but they are always administrative divisions of the state. For further detail, visit
counties and
county statistics of the United States. Counties in many states are further subdivided into
townships - which, by definition, are administrative divisions of a county. In some states, such as Michigan, a township can file a charter with the state government, making itself into a "charter township", which is a type of mixed municipal and township status (giving the township some of the rights of a city without all of the responsibilities), much in the way a metropolitan municipality is a mixed municipality and county.
Cities in the United States
Main articles: List of cities in the United States
There are approximately 30,000 incorporated cities in the United States, with varying degrees of self-rule.
Townships in the United States
Township is an intermediate civic designation between city and county; cities sometimes cross county boundaries, townships never do. Some townships have governments and political power, others are simply geographic designations. Townships in the United States are generally the product of the
Public Land Survey System. For more information, see
survey township and
civil township. Townships are subdivided into
sections, which never have separate governments.
The terms townships and towns are closely related (in many historical documents the terms are used interchangeably). However, the powers granted to towns or townships varies considerably from state to state. In
New England, towns are a principal form of local government, providing many of the functions of counties in other states. In
California, by contrast, the pertinent statutes of the
Government Code clarify that "town" is simply another word for "city", especially a general law city as distinct from a charter city.
Jurisdictions not administered by the states
Federal district of the United States
A separate federal district, the
District of Columbia, which is under the direct authority of Congress, was formed from land ceded to the Federal Government by the adjoining states of
Maryland and
Virginia; although all of the Virginia cession was subsequently returned to state jurisdiction. The district does not form part of any state and the
United States Congress has the constitutional power of, "Exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever", over the district; however, the
District of Columbia Home Rule Act provides for a
mayor-
council system of government.
The District of Columbia is coterminous with the nation's
capital city,
Washington.
Indian reservations
American
Indian reservations are a separate and special classification of political division of the U.S. Under U.S. law, Indian tribes are
sovereign nations, meaning that their legal authority to exist derives independently of the state and federal governments. However, under this definition of
tribal sovereignty, they cannot ''act'' independently of the federal government, but they are immune from regulations under state law. Until the late-19th century, agreements between the U.S. government and Native American groups were generally called
treaties, however these are now considered domestic legislation despite their name, and, since the passage of the
Dawes Act in 1883, no new treaties with Indian tribes have been concluded.
Territories of the United States
Main articles: United States territory,
Territories of the United States
Lands and regions not part of any state, and not assigned to the native peoples of the Americas, have often been legally designated as
territories by the U.S. government. These can be
incorporated territories (i.e., within the United States proper) or unincorporated (sometimes called "possessions" or "overseas territories"). From the organization of the
Northwest Territory in 1789, large parts of the United States were under the direct control of the federal government as
organized incorporated territories, with some political
autonomy at the territorial level. Since the admission of
Hawaii as a state in 1959, there have been no incorporated territories other than the uninhabited
Palmyra Atoll (which was part of the
Hawaii Territory but was excluded from the state as admitted in 1959). Several overseas
unincorporated territories, briefly held, are now independent countries, with
Cuba and the
Philippines being two examples.
Unlike states, the authority to rule dependent areas comes not from the people of those areas but from the Federal government; however, in most cases Congress has granted a large amount of self-rule. Congress has granted most territories (including the former incorporated organized territories as well as four of the five current unincorporated territories) the right to send a
non-voting delegate to the U.S. Congress.
The U.S. is part of several international disputes over the disposition of certain maritime and insular sovereignties some of which would be considered territories and others of which would be considered part of a U.S. state. See
International territorial disputes of the United States
Insular areas of the United States
Several islands in the
Pacific Ocean and
Caribbean Sea are considered
insular areas of the United States.
Incorporated (integral part of United States)
Inhabited
★ none
Uninhabited
★
Palmyra Atoll (uninhabited, owned by
The Nature Conservancy but administered by the
Office of Insular Affairs; part of the
United States Minor Outlying Islands)
Unincorporated (United States' possessions)
Inhabited
★
American Samoa (officially unorganized, although self-governing under authority of the
U.S. Department of the Interior)
★
Guam (organized under Organic Act of 1950)
★
Northern Mariana Islands (commonwealth, organized under 1977 Covenant)
★
Puerto Rico (commonwealth, organized under terms of the 1950 Puerto Rico-Federal Relations Act)
★
U.S. Virgin Islands (organized under Revised Organic Act of 1954)
Uninhabited
Along with Palmyra Atoll, these form the
United States Minor Outlying Islands:
★
Baker Island
★
Howland Island
★
Jarvis Island
★
Johnston Atoll
★
Kingman Reef
★
Midway Islands (administered as the Midway Atoll
National Wildlife Refuge)
★
Navassa Island
★
Wake Island
From
July 18,
1947 until
October 1,
1994, the U.S. administered the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, but more recently entered into a new political relationship with all four political units (one of which is the Northern Mariana Islands listed above, the others being the three
freely-associated states noted below).
Freely-associated states
The freely-associated states are the three sovereign states with which the United States has entered into a
Compact of Free Association. They have not been within U.S. jurisdiction since they became sovereign; however, many considered them to be
dependencies of the United States until each was admitted to the
United Nations in the
1990s.
★
Republic of the Marshall Islands
★
Federated States of Micronesia
★
Republic of Palau
Electoral districts
Each political institution defines for itself the districts from which its members are elected.
Congressional districts are an example of this. State legislatures are also divided up from the territory of each state.
Other districts
In addition to general-purpose government entities legislating at the state, county, and city level, special-purpose entities such as
conservation districts also exist.
Government-like organs
Additionally, U.S. courts have ruled that there are smaller organs which are to be considered as fulfilling government functions, and should therefore be bound by the same restrictions placed on "traditional" (US-aligned) government bodies (non-
discrimination, etc.). These include '
homeowners associations' (determined in ''
Shelley v. Kraemer'', ''
Loren v. Sasser'', ''
Committee for a Better Twin Rivers v. Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Association''), and 'company-owned towns' (both for employees and for consumers, decided in the
USSC case ''
Marsh v. Alabama'' in 1946). Many homeowners' and neighborhood associations are considered
non-profit organizations, but have the ability to raise
taxes/fees, to fine members for infractions against association-rules, and to initiate lawsuits. The question of human rights/civil rights (
freedom of expression, etc.) in such communities has not yet been conclusively determined, and varies from state to state.
See also
★
United States territory
★
Geography of the United States
★
Territorial evolution of the United States
★
Territories of the United States
★
Historic regions of the United States
★
History of United States continental expansion
★
History of United States overseas expansion
★
List of regions of the United States
★
Organized territory
★
Unceded territory
★
Unorganized territory
External links
★
Animated Map: Boundaries of the United States and the Several States
★
U.S. Census Bureau Geographic Areas Reference Manual
★
CityMayors article
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