The majority are sovereign states by law and in practice.

This indicates that they are legal

entities with real existence. In any case, there are occasionally just states. This means that
other states think of a group as the real government of a place over which they have no real
control. Many European nations had governments in exile who maintained relations with the
Allies throughout the Second World War despite being under Nazi occupation. For instance, the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a UN observer and has bilateral diplomatic ties with 104
states. It does not have its own land; it only has embassies and consulates. Although other
states may hold sway over a region, these other states are still considered true states. Most
people agree that Somaliland is a state like these.

According to political theory, the supreme authority in the state's decision-making and order-
keeping processes is sovereignty. The concept of sovereignty is one of the most contentious
concepts in political science and international law. It has a lot in common with the difficult
concepts of democracy, independence, and state and government. The term, which comes from
the French souveraineté and the Latin superanus, originally meant supreme power. Its actual
usage, on the other hand, frequently deviates from this conventional meaning.