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Illustration of the Book Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes.

In politics, a state is the government of a country which has control over a geographic area or territory. States have three main features:

• Control over a geographic area, or territory
• A people, the population of the state.
• Institutions which have the power to make laws.

There are different forms of government a state may have, for example a republic or a monarchy. Sometimes states form their own countries. In its origin the United States had different kinds of states, but they agreed to join together. Most states also have armed forces, civil service, law and police.