Body politic is a metaphor in which a nation is considered to be a corporate entity , being likened to a human body . The word "politic" in this phrase is a post positive adjective ; so it is "a body of a politic nature" rather than "a politic of a bodily nature". A body politic comprises all the people in a particular country considered as a single group. The analogy is typically continued by reference to the type of government as the head of state , but may be extended to other anatomical parts, as in political readings of the Aesop's fable , " The Belly and the Members ". The metaphor appears in the French language as the corps-état . The metaphor developed in Renaissance times, as the medical knowledge based upon the classical work of Galen was being challenged by new thinkers such as William Harvey . Analogies were made between the supposed causes of dis...