polities

Noun

polity (countable and uncountable, plural polities)

1. (uncountable, usually) Organizational structure and governance, especially of a state or a religion.
   • Church polity was a topic of fierce dispute in 17th-century Britain.
2. (countable) A politically organized unit, especially a nation of people, a class or ingroup that governs it, or the state ruled thereby.
   • New polities emerged in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.