Project:Policies specific to polities
lgbtDB follows a specific pattern when cataloging polities that is designed to align with the FAO[lower-alpha 1] Geopolitical Ontology.
Introduction
Countries, Nations, and States
Individual countries and nations in lgbtDB are considered to persist in time, despite changes in government, being more of an abstract "idea" than a firm, geopolitical entity. When a country or nation exists with a distinct geopolitical existence (not a simple change in administration, but a complete overhauling of its constituent geopolitical systems, such as a change in constitution or a political revolution), a country or nation can be "said to be the same as" its constituent part. These distinct existences are denoted as states.
For example, the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR) exists as a distinct political union on 3 October 1990, but Germany is said to have existed since 800 CE. Therefore these entities are considered to be the same, but only starting on 3 October 1990. When a state succeeds or precedes another, use the property "successor of" or "predecessor of". These properties are directly adapted from the FAO Geopolitical Ontology.[1]
As well, be careful when mapping geopolitical entities from other ontologies. For example, sumo:Germany is mapped to WordNet as an equivalent mapping with the definition "a republic in central Europe; split into East Germany and West Germany after World War II and reunited in 1990". Likewise, the MeSH page for Germany also has an annotation noting that the entry is only "for Germany before 23 May 1949 & after 3 Oct 1990". The Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) for Germany says that it is an exact match to the MeSH representation, but contains the editorial note "SUBJECT USAGE: This heading is used for the region and country before or during World War II; the post-war zones of occupation collectively; East and West Germany collectively during the period 1949-1990; or the reunified Germany since 1990." So while the SUMO and MeSH representations do not cover 1949-1990, the LCNAF entity does, meaning the concepts are not truly exact matches.
Stateless Nations
Nations are marked as stateless nations based on their listing in one of the following resources:
Notes
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ Short for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.