States are mini countries, state means country, hence United States. We're a country of smaller countries. So run by the state can be government for the SC or France. The original 13 states (of which SC was one) existed separately as their own countries before they decided to join the US and it's been an ongoing debate how independent each is, which is why we use the Constitution as a guideline. The European Union is basically a variation on the same theme since the economic advantages of such a setup has benefited our country.