Details on Political Characteristics of Nation-States

A nation state is a political unit in which the state and the country are one and the same. It is a more precise concept than “country” because a country does not have to have a dominant ethnic group.

A nation in the sense of a common ethnicity may include a diaspora or refugees living outside of the nation state; some nations in this sense lack a state where that ethnicity predominates. In a larger sense, a nation state is simply a big, politically sovereign country or administrative region. A nation state could be compared to:

• A multicultural state in which no single ethnic group is dominant (such a state may also be considered a multicultural state depending on the degree of cultural assimilation of various groups).
• A city-state that is smaller than a “nation” in the sense of a “large sovereign country” but may or may not be dominated by all or part of a single “nation” in the sense of a shared ethnicity.
• An empire is a collection of countries (potentially non-sovereign entities) and nationalities ruled by a single monarch or ruling state.
• A confederation is a grouping of sovereign nations that may or may not contain nation-states.
• A federated state that is only partially self-governing within a larger federation and may or may not be a nation-state .

The Nation-Station: Definitional Challenges

The definition of a nation-state is famously elusive.

One of the most influential historians of nation-states and nationalism, Anthony Smith,

contended that a state is a nation-state only if and when a single ethnic and cultural population resides inside its borders, and the state’s borders are coextensive with the ethnic and cultural population’s borders. This is a fairly limited definition that assumes the “one nation, one state” concept exists. As a result, only about 10% of the world’s countries fit the criteria.

The presence of minorities, particularly ethnic minorities, which ethnic and cultural nationalists exclude from the dominant nation, is the most evident divergence from this mostly ideal paradigm. The Roma and Jews in Europe are the most instructive historical examples of communities that have been intentionally targeted as outsiders. In legal terms, many nation-states today accept certain minorities as citizens, implying that people of minority rights have the same rights and liberties as members of the majority nation. Nationalists, and hence symbolic narratives of nation-state beginnings and history, frequently continue to exclude minorities from the nation-state and nation.

A nation-state, by a broader working definition, is a type of state that connects a state’s political entity to its cultural entity, from which it hopes to derive its political legitimacy to rule and, if the declarative theory of statehood is accepted rather than the constitutive theory, its status as a sovereign state. A state is a political and geopolitical entity, whereas a nation is a cultural and ethnic entity.The phrase “nation-state” suggests that the two are related in the sense that a state has chosen to accept and endorse a certain cultural group. The multinational state, city-state, empire, confederation, and other state structures with which it may overlap can be compared and contrasted with the concept of a nation-state. The crucial contrast is the nation-association state’s of a people with a government.

Origins

Nation-states’ origins and early history are debated. There have been two significant theoretical debates. “Others believe that the country came first, then nationalist movements demanded sovereignty, and the nation-state was founded to satisfy that demand. Some “modernization theories” of nationalism see it as a result of government efforts aimed at unifying and modernising an existing state. Most theories regard the nation-state as a modern European phenomenon aided by advances such as compulsory education, mass literacy, and mass media (including print). Others, on the other hand, look for ancient nation-state roots.

The concept of a nation-state was and is most generally connected with the formation of the modern state system, sometimes known as the “Westphalian system” after the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). The efficacy of that system’s balance of power rested on the recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territory by clearly defined, centrally controlled, separate entities, whether empires or nation-states. The nation-state was not created by the Westphalian system, but it fits the criteria for its constituent states.

Characteristics

Nation-states have distinct traits that may be taken for granted today as factors forming a modern state, but which all evolved in contrast to pre-national nations. Their land is semi-sacred and non-transferable. In economic, social, and cultural life, nation-states employ the state as a vehicle of national unification. Because they are smaller and less varied, nation-states have a more centralised and uniform public administration than their imperial predecessors. Regional identity was frequently subordinated to national identification after the victory of the nation-state in Europe in the nineteenth century. The regional government was frequently subject to the central (national) government. From the 1970s onwards, this pattern has been largely reversed, with the development of various forms of regional autonomy in previously centralised states (e.g., France).

In comparison to its non-national predecessors, the nation-most state’s visible impact is the formation of a unified national culture through state policy. The nation-state notion argues that a country’s population is linked by common ancestry, language, and a range of shared cultural practises. When there was no implicit unity, the nation-state would frequently try to establish it. The popularisation of nationalist narratives is frequently tied to the establishment of national systems of compulsory primary education. Even today, mythologized versions of national history are frequently taught in elementary and secondary schools around the world.

Sovereignty

Within an individual mind, societal construct, or territory, sovereignty is the defining authority. Sovereignty implies both internal state hierarchy and external state autonomy. In any state, sovereignty is attributed to the person, body, or institution with ultimate authority over other individuals in order to make or amend laws. Sovereignty is a substantive word in political theory that designates supreme legitimate authority over a polity. In international law, sovereignty refers to a state’s exercise of power. The legal authority to do so is known as de jure sovereignty, whereas the real ability to do so is known as de facto sovereignty. When the typical expectation that de jure and de facto sovereignty exist at the location and time of concern, and reside inside the same organisation, this might become a major worry.

Conclusion

A state is a nation-state only if a single ethnic and cultural population lives inside its limits and the state’s borders match those of the population. It presupposes “one nation, one state.” 10% of the world’s countries meet the requirements.Minorities, especially ethnic minorities, whom ethnic and cultural nationalists remove from the majority nation, vary most from this mainly ideal worldview. Roma and Jews in Europe are historical examples of communities targeted as outsiders. Many nation-states acknowledge minorities as citizens, meaning they enjoy the same rights and liberties as majority citizens. Nationalists and symbolic narratives of nation-state beginnings and history continue to marginalise minorities.