Administrative division

Administrative division or administrative unit is a portion of a country or an empire, defined for the purpose of government. Administrative divisions are each granted a certain degree of autonomy and are usually required to manage themselves through their own local governments. Countries are divided up into these smaller units to make managing their land and the affairs of their people easier. A country may be divided into provinces, states, counties, cantons, or other types of regions, which are generally referred to as administrative divisions.

Types of administrative divisions

Administrative divisions can be classified in many ways: by power devolution, by function, or by structure. The most common types include:

• Federated states: These are areas which have been granted a significant amount of self-governance, along with their own legislature, by a treaty or constitution. Examples include the states of the United States of America, provinces of Canada, and federal subjects of Russia.

• Autonomous areas: These are areas that, while not sovereign states, have (in some cases) the right to control their own internal affairs. Examples include the autonomous communities of Spain and the special administrative regions of China.

• Dependent territorys: These are areas that do not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state yet remain politically outside the controlling state's integral area. Examples include Puerto Rico (United States) and Greenland (Denmark).

Functions of administrative divisions

Administrative divisions perform various functions, depending on the country and the context. Some of the common functions include:

• Public administration: This involves the implementation of government policy and also an academic discipline that studies this implementation and prepares civil servants for working in the public service.

• Law enforcement: This involves any system by which some members of society act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society.

• Healthcare: This involves the maintenance and improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, recovery, or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people.

See also

• Political geography
• Territorial entity
• Local government