Commonwealth in the context of Common good

Commonwealth is a term used by two unincorporated territories of the United States in their full official names. These 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 term was also used by the Philippines during most of its period under U.S. sovereignty, when it was officially called the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

The definition of commonwealth according to 2013 United States Department of State policy, as codified in the department's Foreign Affairs Manual, reads: "The term 'Commonwealth' does not describe or provide for any specific political status or relationship. It has, for example, been applied to both states and territories. When used in connection with areas under U.S. sovereignty that are not states, the term broadly describes an area that is self-governing under a constitution of its adoption and whose right of self-government will not be unilaterally withdrawn by the U.S. Congress."

Ummah (/ˈʊmə/; Arabic: أُمَّة [ˈʊm.mæ]) is an Arabic word meaning Muslim identity, nation, religious community, or the concept of a Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers (أمة المؤمنين ummat al-muʼminīn). It is a synonym for ummat al-Islām (أمّةْ الإِسْلَامُ, lit. 'the Islamic nation'); it is commonly used to mean the collective community of Muslim people. In the Quran, the ummah typically refers to a single group that shares common religious beliefs, specifically those that are the objects of a divine plan of salvation. The word ummah (pl. umam [ˈʊmæm]) means nation in Arabic. For example, the Arabic term for the United Nations is الأمم المتحدة al-Umam al-Muttaḥidah, and the term الأمة العربية al-Ummah al-ʻArabiyyah is used to refer to "the Arab Nation".

Ummah is distinguished from shaʻb (شَعْب [ˈʃæʕb], "people"), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. The word ummah differs from the concept of a country or people. In its greater context it is used to describe a larger group of people. For example, in Arabic the word شعب shaʻab ("people") would be used to describe the citizens of Syria. However, the term ummah is used to describe the Arab people as a whole, which includes Syrians as well as the people of the Arab world. Ummah can be a supra-national polity with a common history and identity based on religion. Pan-Islamism advocates for the unity of Muslims in one nation as an Islamic country or an Islamic state.

A corporation sole is a legal entity consisting of a single ("sole") incorporated office, occupied by a single ("sole") natural person. This structure allows corporations (often religious corporations or Commonwealth governments) to pass without interruption from one officeholder to the next, giving positions legal continuity with subsequent officeholders having identical powers and possessions to their predecessors. A corporation sole is one of two types of corporation, the other being a corporation aggregate.

Key features of English culture include the language, traditions, and beliefs that are common in the country, among much else. Since England’s creation by the Anglo-Saxons, important influences have included the Norman conquest, Catholicism, Protestantism, and immigration from the Commonwealth and elsewhere, as well as its position in Europe and the Anglosphere. English culture has had major influence across the world, in the British Isles and English colonies such as the United States.

Humour, tradition, and good manners are characteristics commonly associated with being English. England has made significant contributions in the world of literature, cinema, music, art and philosophy. The secretary of state for culture, media and sport is the government minister responsible for the cultural life of England.

Res publica, also spelled rēs pūblica to indicate vowel length, is a Latin phrase, loosely meaning "public affair". It is the root of the word republic, and commonwealth has traditionally been used as a synonym for it; however, translations vary widely according to the context. Res is a nominative singular Latin noun for a substantive or concrete thing (matter, thing, affair)—as opposed to spes, which means something unreal or ethereal—and publica is an attributive adjective meaning "of or pertaining to the public, people", hence a literal translation is "the thing, affair of the public," or "the thing, affair of the people."

The Latin term res publica was incompatible with the idea of absolute power by any individual or group over the body of citizens. The most essential characteristic of a res publica was liberty (libertas), which meant freedom from the arbitrary control of another and the absence of a monarchical domination over the body politic, that was analogous to the absolute power of a master over a slave.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has 14 counties, though eight of these fourteen county governments were abolished between 1997 and 2000. The counties in the southeastern portion of the state retain county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) or, in one case, (Nantucket County) consolidated town-county government. Vestigial judicial and law enforcement districts still follow county boundaries even in the counties whose county-level government has been disestablished, and the counties are still generally recognized as geographic entities if not political ones. Three counties (Barnstable, Hampshire, and Franklin) have formed new county regional compacts to serve as a form of regional governance.

The Government of Portugal, also referred to as the Government of the Republic is one of the four sovereignty bodies [pt] of Portugal, together with the president, the assembly of the Republic and the courts. It is both the body of sovereignty that conducts the general politics of the country and the superior body of the Portuguese public administration.

The term "constitutional government" or simply "government" also refers to the team of ministers and its period of management under one prime minister. This concept is similar to an "administration" in the parlance of a presidential republic or to a "collective ministry" in the parlance of some Commonwealth countries. Each government in this sense is identified by a roman number, with the present one (formed in June 2025) being the XXV Constitutional Government since the establishment of the current democratic regime, in 1976.

The Commonwealth of England, enlarged in 1653 as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when the Kingdom of England was dissolved into a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles I. The republic's existence was declared through "An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth", adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649. Power in the early Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament and a Council of State. During the period, fighting continued, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, between the parliamentary forces and those opposed to them, in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and the Anglo-Scottish war of 1650–1652.

In 1653, after dissolution of the Rump Parliament, the Army Council adopted the Instrument of Government, by which Oliver Cromwell was made Lord Protector of a united "Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland", inaugurating the period now usually known as the Protectorate. After Cromwell's death, and following a brief period of rule under his son, Richard Cromwell, the Protectorate Parliament was dissolved in 1659 and the Rump Parliament recalled, starting a process that led to the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The term Commonwealth is sometimes used for the whole of 1649 to 1660 – called by some the Interregnum – although for other historians, the use of the term is limited to the years prior to Cromwell's formal assumption of power in 1653.

The Old Covenant (Modern Icelandic: Gamli sáttmáli [ˈkamlɪ ˈsauhtˌmauːlɪ]; Old Norse: [ˈɡɑmle ˈsɑːtːˌmɑːle]) was the name of the agreement which effected the union of Iceland and Norway. It is also known as Gissurarsáttmáli, named after Gissur Þorvaldsson, the Icelandic chieftain who worked to promote it. The name "Old Covenant", however, is probably due to historical confusion. Gamli sáttmáli is properly the treaty of 1302 mentioned below and the treaty of 1262 is the actual Gissurarsáttmáli.

The agreement also led to a shift in Iceland's political ideology towards the model of monarchy since it diminished the role of its chieftains (goði) as models of political rule. Prior to the agreement, the chieftains' power, which developed into a Commonwealth, was idealized particularly during the 12th and 13th centuries.

Commonwealth is a term used by four of the 50 states of the United States in their full official names: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. "Commonwealth" is a traditional English term used to describe a political community as having been founded for the common good, and shares some similarities with the Latin phrase "res publica" ('the public thing'), which ultimately is the origin of the word "republic".

The "commonwealth" appellation is merely stylistic and carries no legal or political significance. The four states that use this term are all in the Eastern United States, and prior to the formation of the United States in 1776 were British colonial possessions (at the time, Kentucky was a part of colonial Virginia). As such, they share a strong influence of English common law in some of their laws and institutions.

The Metropolis of Kyiv (Greek: Μητρόπολις Κιέβου, romanized: Mitrópolis Kiévou; Ukrainian: Ки́ївська митропо́лія, romanized: Kyivska mytropoliia; Belarusian: Кіеўская мітраполія, Kijeŭskaja mitrapolija) was an autonomous metropolis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople with center in Kyiv after its formation in 988 as a result of the Christianization of Rus by Volodymyr the Great until January 6, 2019, when it received the Tomos on Autocephaly.

In 1596, the Union of Brest was adopted which transferred the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the metropolis from the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Holy See. As a sui juris Eastern Catholic particular church, the metropolis retained its ancient rights; in time, it came to be known as the Ruthenian Uniate Church. Some clergy and laity in the Commonwealth continued to give their loyalty to Constantinople but had no hierarchs to support them. In 1620, the Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny, secured the restoration of the Orthodox hierarchy in the Commonwealth as the Metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus'.

Tazewell County (/ˈtæzwɛl/) is a county located in the southwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,429. Its county seat is Tazewell.

Tazewell County is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its economy was dependent on coal and iron of the Pocahontas Fields from the late 19th into the 20th century.

The Government of Portugal, also referred to as the Government of the Republic is one of the four sovereignty bodies (pt) of Portugal, together with the president, the assembly of the Republic and the courts. It is both the body of sovereignty that conducts the general politics of the country and the superior body of the Portuguese public administration.

The term "constitutional government" or simply "government" also refers to the team of ministers and its period of management under one prime minister. This concept is similar to an "administration" in the parlance of a presidential republic or to a "collective ministry" in the parlance of some Commonwealth countries. Each government in this sense is identified by a roman number, with the present one (formed in June 2025) being the XXV Constitutional Government since the establishment of the current democratic regime, in 1976.