Territories and Possessions

The United States governs more than the fifty states. It also holds authority over the District of Columbia and several island territories, whose residents are American citizens or nationals but do not have the same voting representation in Congress or the same control over their own affairs that state residents have. Congress and the executive branch set the terms under which these places govern themselves, and those terms can differ sharply from place to place.

The nation’s capital is a special case: created by the Constitution to house the federal government, it operates under a system of local self-rule that Congress can limit or override. Readers curious about how much control Washington’s local government actually has, and how federal authorities can step in on matters like policing, can start with District of Columbia.

Symbols of expansion also connect to this area of government. Statehood and territorial status both shape how the country is represented, down to the literal design of its flag. The process for formally recognizing a new state, and what it takes to add another star to that flag, is explained in How to Add a New Star to the American Flag.

Ongoing questions in this area tend to center on representation and self-governance: whether residents of these places should have voting members of Congress, whether their local governments should have more independence from federal oversight, and what path, if any, leads toward statehood or a different status. These debates recur because the constitutional design leaves Congress with broad power over areas outside the fifty states, and that power is exercised differently depending on the place and the era.