Editing Decolonization (section)

=== State-building ===
{{Main|State-building}}
After independence, the new states needed to establish or strengthen the institutions of a sovereign state – governments, laws, a military, schools, administrative systems, and so on. The amount of self-rule granted prior to independence, and assistance from the colonial power and/or international organizations after independence, varied greatly between colonial powers, and between individual colonies.<ref name="Glassner, Martin Ira 1980">Glassner, Martin Ira (1980). ''Systematic Political Geography'' 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York.</ref>

Except for a few absolute monarchies, most post-colonial states are either [[republic]]s or [[constitutional monarchy|constitutional monarchies]]. These new states had to devise [[constitution]]s, [[electoral system]]s, and other institutions of [[representative democracy]].