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The term "commonwealth" is used interchangeably with the term "state" in the Constitution of Vermont, [11] but the act of Congress admitting that state to the Union calls it "the State of Vermont." Delaware was primarily referred to as a "state" in its 1776 Constitution; however, the term commonwealth was also used in one of its articles. [12]
The term literally meant "common well-being". In the 17th 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". [3] [4] The term evolved to become a title to a number of political entities.
The government of each of the five permanently inhabited U.S. territories is modeled and organized in a like fashion. Each state is itself a sovereign entity, and as such, reserves the right to organize in any way (within the above stated parameter) deemed appropriate by its people. As a result, while the governments of the various states share ...
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal countries with a combined population of 2.5 billion people. The Commonwealth’s roots go back to the British Empire, but ...
The term, commonwealth, which refers to a state in which the supreme power is vested in the people, was first used in Virginia during the Interregnum, the 1649–60 period between the reigns of Charles I and Charles II during which parliament's Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector established a republican government known as the Commonwealth of ...
Every state except for Nebraska has a bicameral legislature, meaning it comprises two chambers. The unicameral Nebraska Legislature is commonly called the "Senate", and its members are officially called "Senators". In the majority of states (26), the state legislature is simply called "Legislature".
Commonwealth is a term used by two unincorporated territories of the United States in their full official names, which are the Northern Mariana Islands, whose full name is Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico, which is named Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in English and Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico in Spanish, translating to "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico."
The following is a list of the current constitutions of the states in the United States. Each entry shows the ordinal number of the current constitution, the official name of the current constitution, the date on which the current constitution took effect, and the estimated length of the current constitution.