A province is a geographic area that has some governance secondary to the governance of a central state or country. A province can also be used as merely an expression to define an area. For example, in France, anything outside of Paris would have been part of a province, hence the term provincial. Provinces in France now are likely to refer to regions of France rather than governmental structure.

A province is essentially the same as a state in many respects. The province may be run by a governor and may have some powers that are not decided by the country. For example, gay marriage rights exist in a few US states but are not available in most US states.

Canada, for example, has provinces instead of states. It also has territories. Canada’s ten provinces have more rights directly from the head of the Canadian government than do the three territories. The territory has fewer “states rights” and must generally abide and not supersede the laws at the federal level.

As with state versus federal powers in the US, sometimes the rights of the province may be argued against the rights of the country. In general, in Canada, each province is endowed with more rights than are accorded the US states. However, these checks and balances between the provincial and the whole government can and do create tensions, just as states rights versus federal government create tension in the US.

Problems are often created over amount of power, which is not defined for a province in the county’s constitution. These undefined areas, or residual powers, often create the most collusion since a province can thus decide to what degree it wishes to be sovereign over the country as a whole.

Provinces are not exclusive to voting countries. The largest province in the world is in China, which is divided into 23 provinces, each led by a governor. The real power lies in the Committee belonging to the People’s Republic of China. The governor of a province in China answers to the committee.

One of the exceptions to the rule in China is Taiwan, which is not administered by the People’s Republic of China. It is the only province in China that is controlled by the Republic of China and solely administered by that republic instead of the central Chinese government.