A
sovereign state is a political organization with a
centralized government that has supreme independent authority over a geographic area. It has a permanent population, a
government, and the capacity to enter into
relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither dependent on nor subject to any other power or state. The existence or disappearance of a state is a question of fact. While according to the declaratory theory of state recognition a sovereign state can exist without being
recognised by other sovereign states, unrecognised states will often find it hard to exercise full treaty-making powers and engage in
diplomatic relations with other sovereign states.
The word "
country" is often
colloquially used to refer to sovereign states, although it means, originally, only a
geographic region, and subsequently its meaning became extended to the sovereign
polity which controls the geographic region.