What is the difference between a comonwealth and a state?

uscitizen

uscitizen

Villified User
Curious. Some in KY have been talking about becoming a state. Is this like reorging your books to convert from an insurance co to a bank holding company?
 
Anyone?


Have I stumped the panel of experts and win the dream vacation?

I have been wondering if we have 50 states since at least a few of them say commonwealth on their state seal and such.
 
uscitizen said:
Anyone?


Have I stumped the panel of experts and win the dream vacation?

I have been wondering if we have 50 states since at least a few of them say commonwealth on their state seal and such.
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you have no common sense or wealth, so where ever you live, it must be state...

from my memory in undergrad, many states were commonwealth, hence they carry over name, but there are no longer any true commonwealth entities......
 
Watermarx said:
They're both states. Commonwealth is just a title a few states choose to apply to themselves; it has no real legal connotations.
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You are certain? There has been talk of KY changing to a state and some complilcations and some possible benefits. However I missed the part of the news broadcast where they said what the pros and cons were.
 
Its just out of date. Commonwealth was just a commonly used term at the time those states were created. Not doubt KY feels its time to upgrade.

Other than the prestige heaped on it, how is a university different from a college? Yet my freshman year, my school became a university, and tons of alumni requested new diplomas reflecting the change, but were denied...
 
Okay, after a bit of research I found that Constitutionally speaking there is zero difference between a State and a Commonwealth.

Originally the four Commonwealth States (MA, PA, VA, KY) were called "Commonwealth" to denote that they are democratically elected leaders and ruled by "the people" rather than a King or Tyrant.

So, when the US finally realized the insufferable tyranny of extra "u"s in all the words like "colour", they called themselves commonwealths in the hotbeds of revolution, PA, VA, and MA. As for KY, since they were originally just a huge District in Virginia (Ever wonder where District of Columbia came from and why it was a "district"?), when they decided they wanted to keep their whiskey to themselves they held on to the "Commonwealth" name.

Now, there are two other commonwealths under US jurisdiction, but in the case of Puerto Rico and the North Mariana Islands they are called commonwealths because they do have some standing and protections granted them, but do not have the full benefits of Statehood in the Union.

(When West "by Gawd" Virginia seceded from Virginia, they decided to take on Statehood rather than maintain commonwealth...)
 
Damocles said:
Okay, after a bit of research I found that Constitutionally speaking there is zero difference between a State and a Commonwealth.

Originally the four Commonwealth States (MA, PA, VA, KY) were called "Commonwealth" to denote that they are democratically elected leaders and ruled by "the people" rather than a King or Tyrant.

So, when the US finally realized the insufferable tyranny of extra "u"s in all the words like "colour", they called themselves commonwealths in the hotbeds of revolution, PA, VA, and MA. As for KY, since they were originally just a huge District in Virginia (Ever wonder where District of Columbia came from and why it was a "district"?), when they decided they wanted to keep their whiskey to themselves they held on to the "Commonwealth" name.

Now, there are two other commonwealths under US jurisdiction, but in the case of Puerto Rico and the North Mariana Islands they are called commonwealths because they do have some standing and protections granted them, but do not have the full benefits of Statehood in the Union.

(When West "by Gawd" Virginia seceded from Virginia, they decided to take on Statehood rather than maintain commonwealth...)
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Interesting.

I originally thought they'd just copied off us when we we got shot of a king and didn't know what else to call ourselves.
 
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