Re: As Is (was: Re: Concurrency)

Australia is divided up into states which are not sovereign political
entities. They were once individual colonies, but that's the closest
they've been. Although what powers aren't specifically given to the
commonwealth government by the constitution are in the state governments'
hands.

At 10.47 p.m. 23.12.2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Technically, I think they're all the same except for state.  'State'
>technically means 'sovereign political entity'.  It's only a bizarre
>twist of American History that's caused it to be used like 'province'
>here.  The 'United States' was originally the name of the alliance
>against Britain.  It was just that: an alliance of sovereign  states.
>As time passed, however, the states lost power.  Nowadays, most
>americans think of the word 'state' as meaning the same thing as
>'province.'
>-M
>
>laokou wrote:
>
> >
> > {Aside: speaking of which, is there a real, significant (semantic?)
> > difference between how states/provinces/prefectures/cantons are
> governed, or
> > is it merely nuances in nomenclature?}
> >