What Is a commonwealth,and is a commonwealth still a state?

Question

I know sounds DUMB but my moms boyfriend and i got in a huge arugument about this. He said that KY is not considered a state but a commonwealth.

Answer 1

A commonwealth in the United States means the state was established under the legal traditions and codes of the old English "Common Law."

Answer 2

Sounds a bit silly to engage in a 'huge' argument over the likes of this. You'll likely find a much better answer from others on here, or Wikipedia online, but realize that Australia is considered a commonwealth of the U.K. (as is/ or was? Canada) These are sovereign nations, of course. Virginia, perhaps moreso than Tennessee, like to refer to itsef as a commonwealth, perhaps as a prideful traditional relic from older times. I believe commonwealth is more of a general term that denotes some sort of mutually beneficial economic- trade, etc. partnership between political entities. Not a brilliant response, but you can look these things up, google the term, etc. Finally, enjoying the status of 'commonwealth' certainly does not exclude an entity from being either a state or nation.

Answer 3

I doubt, Markusman, that Australia or Canada will like being called 'a Commonwealth' of the UK. They are part of the 'Commonwealth of Nations', formerly the 'British Commonwealth', a loose organisation of independent nation states which includes the former Dominions (Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc) and colonies of the former British Empire. Not all former colonies joined and some countries - South Africa being the most notable - were excluded, then readmitted. The United Kingdom has no control whatsoever over this Commonwealth.

Answer 4

There are four official commonwealths in the United States:Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts.
According to the website I found, "In common usage all these are normally referred to as being states.
The Northern Marianas Islands in the Pacific and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean are also commonwealths.

Dictionaries and encyclopedias that I have consulted offer two definitions of the word commonwealth:

A state in which the government functions with the common consent of the people. This definition would seem to me to be virtually identical to that of a democracy. One source describes the USA and its individual states as being commonwealths in this sense but with only the states listed above officially designating themselves as such. The term would therefore appear to be merely a description and to have little or no precise meaning.

A fixed but flexible association of states, as in the British Commonwealth and the Commonwealth of Independent States."

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Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_(United_States)