Boy politic or body corporate and politic means a state or one of its subordinate civil authorities, such as a province, prefecture, county, municipality, city or district. It is generally understood to mean a geographic area with an associated government at whatever level. In previous centuries body politic was also understood to mean the physical person of the sovereign. (In monarchies and despotisms the person of the emperor, the king, the dictator, etc and in republics, the electorate.) It can now also mean representative of the ethnic/gender demographics of a region. For example, in many liberal democracies, cabinets are chosen to represent the body politic.