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Dating from the fifteenth century, the phrase common wealth reflects the old meaning of well-being; hence commonwealth, as often used by seventeenth-century writers, meant an organized political community governed for the common good, on occasion implying an interest, or say, for all members. The term has evolved to denote a polity that is law-based, contractual, and consensually united with supreme authority vested in the populace; especially capitalized, it can also designate an association of sovereign states more or less loosely associated in a common allegiance, or an autonomous political unit voluntarily associated with another. Used most prominently at the international level today, a few cases of national and subnational commonwealths remain.

Historical Commonwealths

In various parts of the world, historical cases of commonwealths, to some extent, foreshadow their modern counterparts in displaying elements of contractual self-government. These cases include:

The medieval Icelandic Commonwealth or Free State (930–1262), which ended with a pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king;
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1791), one of the largest and most populous polities in seventeenth century Europe, which, as a semi federal republic centered on a gentry-controlled parliament and an elected, contract-bound monarch, can be considered a precursor to modern concepts of constitutional monarchy and federation;
The Commonwealth of England, which replaced the kingdoms of England and Scotland in the period of the English Interregnum (1649–1660) after the Civil War. Formally the first republic in the English-speaking world, under the rule of “Lord Protectors” Oliver and Richard Cromwell, the Commonwealth of England effectively amounted to military rule in the name of parliamentary supremacy;
The Commonwealth of the Philippines (1935–1946), a transitional, self-governing political entity in free association with the United States, created in preparation for the Philippines’s independence.

International Level

The Commonwealth of Nations is the voluntary confederation of former parts of the British Empire (plus Mozambique), a group of fifty-three sovereign states and their dependencies linked by common objectives and interests. Members include both republics and monarchies, and in 2010 the (appointed, not hereditary) head of the Commonwealth of Nations is Queen Elizabeth II, who is also reigning monarch in the commonwealth realms, notably the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

The roots of the modern commonwealth lie in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when certain colonies— Canada (1867), followed by Australia (1900), New Zealand (1907), South Africa (1910), and the Irish Free State (1921)— became self-governing dominions, a newly constituted status implying equality with Britain. After World War I (1914–1918), the dominions’ relationship with Britain was developed further, and in 1926 the Imperial Conference defined them as autonomous and equal communities within the British Empire, united by common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. After World War II (1939–1945), decolonization led to the London Declaration of 1949, which, in order to enable newly independent republics like India to join, dropped “allegiance to the Crown” as a requirement for membership as well as the designation “British.” From the late 1950s, new members from the Mediterranean, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific joined, extending the community’s spectrum of activities, and in 1965 the establishment of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London furnished the organization with an independent civil service. The Commonwealth Foundation (1966), the Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles (which, in 1971, introduced a formal code of ethics and a commitment to human rights, racial, and economic justice), and the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation completed the modern Commonwealth of Nations. Its biannual summits are the association’s ultimate policy and decision-making forum, at which it reviews international developments, issues positions, and decides on any action, particularly in terms of priorities and programs for development cooperation. These summits, held in a different member state each time, are also considered an opportunity to strengthen the idea of the Commonwealth of Nations as an association providing friendship, business partnership, and stabilization for its members.

The creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) signaled the end of the Soviet Union in December 1991. A loose confederation of twelve of the fifteen former Soviet Republics on the basis of “sovereign equality,” it has evolved from its initial purpose of facilitating their “civilized divorce” into a forum for economic, foreign policy, and defense cooperation, coordinated through an array of CIS institutions. Various institutional steps have been aimed at deepening integration among some of its members. In 1993, the CIS created an Economic Union modeled on the European Union’s Common Market, notably also aiming for the coordination of tax and price policy. In 1995, Russia and Belarus agreed to form the Commonwealth of Sovereign Republics and to deepen integration in the humanitarian and economic fields with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan with an interstate council, which later also included Tajikistan. In 2000, these five formed the Eurasian Economic Community, with which some other CIS members have associated themselves to various degrees.

In 2003, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine created a common economic space. Unlike the Commonwealth of Nations, then, the CIS has been characterized by a certain incoherence due to members’ strongly varying ambitions in terms of the desired levels of integration.

National Level

The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 with the federation of six states under a single constitution. After the first Europeans had begun exploration in the seventeenth century, Captain James Cook took possession for Great Britain in 1770, and subsequently, six colonies—New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia—were created. Early efforts at federation in the 1850s and 1860s, also involving Fiji and New Zealand who later decided to opt out, lacked popular support. The 1901 Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act created a federal system dividing power between the national government and the six former colonies, designating Australia a constitutional monarchy where a governor-general represents the royal head of state at the federal level, and six governors represent at the state level.

Other national commonwealths include the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, which adopted the title upon independence from Britain in 1973 and also remains a commonwealth realm within the Commonwealth of Nations; and, since 1970, the Commonwealth of Dominica, after it obtained associated statehood (virtual independence from Britain) in 1968.

Subnational Level

The United States of America contains four commonwealths: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. While not used in common parlance, the designation, which has no constitutional effect, emphasizes their government “based on the common consent of the people,” as opposed to one legitimized through their earlier royal British colony status. In addition, commonwealth is also used to describe the political relationship between the United States and its unincorporated, self-governing overseas territories of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, indicating their consensual association as well as their status outside of the federal hierarchy.

In general, use of the term commonwealth has tended to underline the voluntary and consensual nature of a political community or an association among political entities; in some cases, it has additionally been used to indicate that such an association, while more than an alliance, constituted less than a confederation or federation.

Bibliography:

Commonwealth Secretariat. The Commonwealth Yearbook. London: Nexus Strategic Partnerships, 2009.
Lloyd, Lorna. Diplomacy with a Difference: The Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880–2006. Leiden, the Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 2007.
Lundan, Sarianna M., and Geoffrey Jones.“The ‘Commonwealth Effect’ and the Process of Internationalisation.” World Economy 24, no. 1 (2001): 99–118. MacCormick, Neil. Questioning Sovereignty: Law, State, and Nation in the
European Commonwealth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Mayall, James. “Democratizing the Commonwealth.” International Affairs 74, no. 2 (1998): 379–392.
Shaw,Timothy M. “The Commonwealth(s) and Global Governance.” Global Governance 10, no. 4 (2004): 499–516.