Department (administrative division)
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A department (Template:Langx, Template:Langx) is an administrative or political division in several countries. Departments are the first-level divisions of 11 countries, nine in the Americas and two in Africa. An additional 10 countries use departments as second-level divisions, eight in Africa, and one each in the Americas and Europe.[1]
As a territorial entity, "department" was first used by the French Revolutionary governments, apparently to emphasize that each territory was simply an administrative sub-division of the united sovereign nation. (The term "department", in other contexts, means an administrative sub-division of a larger organization.) This attempt to de-emphasize local political identity contrasts strongly with countries divided into "states" (implying local sovereignty).
The division of France into departments was a project particularly identified with the French revolutionary leader the Abbé Sieyès, although it had already been frequently discussed and written about by many politicians and thinkers. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of d'Argenson.
Today, departments may exist either with or without a representative assembly and executive head depending upon the countries' constitutional and administrative structure.
Countries using departments
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- Template:Flagicon Argentina*
- Template:Flagicon Benin
- Template:Flagicon Bolivia
- Template:Flagicon Burkina Faso
- Template:Flagicon Cameroon
- Template:Flagicon Chad
- Template:Flagicon Colombia
- Template:Flagicon Republic of the Congo
- Template:Flagicon Côte d'Ivoire
- Template:Flagicon El Salvador
- Template:Flagicon France
- Template:Flagicon Gabon
- Template:Flagicon Guatemala
- Template:Flagicon Haiti
- Template:Flagicon Honduras
- Template:Flagicon Mauritania
- Template:Flagicon Nicaragua
- Template:Flagicon Niger
- Template:Flagicon Paraguay
- Template:Flagicon Peru
- Template:Flagicon Senegal
- Template:Flagicon Uruguay
*All provinces except Buenos Aires province.
Former countries using departments
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- Template:Flagicon Batavian Republic
- Template:Flagicon Cisalpine Republic
- Template:Flagicon French Empire
- Template:Flagicon Gran Colombia
- Template:Flagicon Centralist Republic of Mexico
- Template:Flagicon Second Mexican Empire
- Template:Flagicon Kingdom of Holland
- Template:Flagicon Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)
- Template:Flagicon Italian Republic (Napoleonic)
- Template:Flagicon PeruTemplate:Efn
- Template:Flagicon Duchy of Warsaw
- Template:Flagicon United StatesTemplate:Efn
- Template:Flagicon Kingdom of Westphalia
Notes
References
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External links
See also
- Administrative divisions
- Departments of the Duchy of Warsaw
- Departments of France
- Overseas departments and territories of France
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