Authors: Bobbio, Matteucci, Pasquino
Summary: This entry describes the characteristic features of a political community. A political community can be defined as a territorially-based population consisting of all those individuals who are included in the political division of work. The term defines one important aspect of the state: its territorial and popular basis-the area in which the government exercises its monopoly of the force.
The national state tends to impose an identity of language and culture upon all members of the political community, and at least in part to hold power based on this commonality of language and culture. Finally, the entry notes that political community as an entity is more stable and long-lasting than governments and regimes.