Nation-State
A Nation-State is a geopolitical entity that is recognized as a sovereign state (by other nation states).
- Context:
- It can (typically) have a National Population, of citizens and immigrants.
- It can (typically) have a National Political System (with a national government).
- It can (typically) have State Monopolies, such as: defence, taxation and law.
- It can (typically) have a National Economy (with national businesses and nations labor market).
- It can (typically) have National Regions.
- It can (typically) have a National Independence Day.
- It can (often) be associated with a Nation.
- It can (often) be associated with a Sovereign Nation.
- It can (often) have an Official Nation-State Tradition.
- It can range from being a Micro-State to being a Average-Sized State to being a Macro-State.
- It can range from being a Democratic Nation State to being a Totalitarian Nation State.
- It can range from being a Liberal State to being an Authoritarian State.
- It can range from being a Uni-Nation State to being a Multi-Nation State.
- It can deliver National Development Programs in fields such as: national education programs, national healthcare program, national welfare program, national cultural programs, ...
- It can range from being a Liberal State to being an Authoritarian State.
- …
- Example(s):
- China (221 BC-): The history of China as a unified state begins with the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC. Modern China, the People's Republic of China, was founded in 1949. Tibet has been under the control of the People's Republic of China since 1951.
- San Marino (301-): San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, founded on September 3, 301.
- Andorra (1278-): Andorra's status as an independent country was established in 1278.
- Switzerland (1291-): The foundation of Switzerland is traditionally dated to 1291.
- Brazil (1500-): Brazil was claimed by Portugal in 1500 and remained a Portuguese colony until 1822.
- The United States of America (1776-): The United States declared independence from Great Britain in 1776. This includes US Commonwealths, Unincorporated Territories, and Indian Reservations.
- Costa Rica (1821-).
- Canada (1867-): Canada became a self-governing dominion within the British Empire on July 1, 1867.
- Taiwan (1949-): The government of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese Civil War.
- Israel (1948-): Israel declared its independence in 1948 following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine.
- Palestine (1988-): The State of Palestine declared its independence in 1988, though its territorial status remains the subject of ongoing conflict and negotiation.
- Malta (1964-): Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964.
- Western Sahara (1976-): Western Sahara declared its independence in 1976, though its status remains disputed and it is largely controlled by Morocco.
- The Soviet Union (1922-1991): The Soviet Union existed from the union of Soviet republics in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991.
- Sri Lanka (1948-)
- …
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Legitimacy (Political), Sovereignty, Nationalism, Ethnic Group, City State, Empire, Citizen.
References
2019
- https://foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2019-02-05/new-americanism-nationalism-jill-lepore
- QUOTE: ... To review: a nation is a people with common origins, and a state is a political community governed by laws. A nation-state is a political community governed by laws that unites a people with a supposedly common ancestry. When nation-states arose out of city-states and kingdoms and empires, they explained themselves by telling stories about their origins—stories meant to suggest that everyone in, say, “the French nation” had common ancestors, when they of course did not. As I wrote in my book These Truths, “Very often, histories of nation-states are little more than myths that hide the seams that stitch the nation to the state.”
But in the American case, the origins of the nation can be found in those seams. When the United States declared its independence, in 1776, it became a state, but what made it a nation? The fiction that its people shared a common ancestry was absurd on its face; they came from all over, and, after having waged a war against Great Britain, just about the last thing they wanted to celebrate was their Britishness. Long after independence, most Americans saw the United States not as a nation but, true to the name, as a confederation of states. ...
- QUOTE: ... To review: a nation is a people with common origins, and a state is a political community governed by laws. A nation-state is a political community governed by laws that unites a people with a supposedly common ancestry. When nation-states arose out of city-states and kingdoms and empires, they explained themselves by telling stories about their origins—stories meant to suggest that everyone in, say, “the French nation” had common ancestors, when they of course did not. As I wrote in my book These Truths, “Very often, histories of nation-states are little more than myths that hide the seams that stitch the nation to the state.”
2018
- (Dasgupta, 2018) ⇒ Rana Dasgupta. (2018). “The Demise of the Nation State - After decades of globalisation, our political system has become obsolete – and spasms of resurgent nationalism are a sign of its irreversible decline.” In: The Guardian
- QUOTE: … Let us start with the west. Europe, of course, invented the nation state: the principle of territorial sovereignty was agreed at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The treaty made large-scale conquest difficult within the continent; instead, European nations expanded into the rest of the world. The dividends of colonial plunder were converted, back home, into strong states with powerful bureaucracies and democratic polities – the template for modern European life.
By the end of 19th century, European nations had acquired uniform attributes still familiar today – in particular, a set of fiercely enforced state monopolies (defence, taxation and law, among others), which gave governments substantial mastery of the national destiny. In return, a moral promise was made to all: the development, spiritual and material, of citizen and nation alike. Spectacular state-run projects in the fields of education, healthcare, welfare and culture arose to substantiate this promise.
The withdrawal of this moral promise over the past four decades has been a shattering metaphysical event in the west, and one that has left populations rummaging around for new things to believe in. For the promise was a major event in the evolution of the western psyche. It was part of a profound theological reorganisation: the French Revolution dethroned not only the monarch, but also God, whose superlative attributes – omniscience and omnipotence – were now absorbed into the institutions of the state itself. The state’s power to develop, liberate and redeem mankind became the foundational secular faith.
During the period of decolonisation that followed the second world war, the European nation-state structure was exported everywhere. But westerners still felt its moral promise with an intensity peculiar to themselves – more so than ever, in fact, after the creation of the welfare state and decades of unprecedented postwar growth. Nostalgia for that golden age of the nation state continues to distort western political debate to this day, but it was built on an improbable coincidence of conditions that will never recur. Very significant was the structure of the postwar state itself, which possessed a historically unique level of control over the domestic economy. Capital could not flow unchecked across borders and foreign currency speculation was negligible compared to today. Governments, in other words, had substantial control over money flows, and if they spoke of changing things, it was because they actually could. The fact that capital was captive meant they Governments could impose historic rates of taxation, which, in an era of record economic growth, allowed them to channel unprecedented energies into national development. For a few decades, state power was monumental – almost divine, indeed – and it created the most secure and equal capitalist societies ever known.
The destruction of state authority over capital has of course been the explicit objective of the financial revolution that defines our present era. As a result, states have been forced to shed social commitments in order to reinvent themselves as custodians of the market. This has drastically diminished national political authority in both real and symbolic ways. ...
- QUOTE: … Let us start with the west. Europe, of course, invented the nation state: the principle of territorial sovereignty was agreed at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The treaty made large-scale conquest difficult within the continent; instead, European nations expanded into the rest of the world. The dividends of colonial plunder were converted, back home, into strong states with powerful bureaucracies and democratic polities – the template for modern European life.
2014
- (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nation_state Retrieved:2014-5-31.
- The nation state is a geographical area that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign nation. [1]
The state is a political and geopolitical entity, while the nation is a cultural and ethnic one. The term "nation state" implies that the two coincide, but "nation state" formation can take place at different times in different parts of the world, and has become the dominant form of world organization.
The concept of the nation state can be compared and contrasted with that of the multinational state, city state, empire, confederation, and other state formations with which it may overlap. The key distinction is the identification of a people with a polity in the "nation state."
- The nation state is a geographical area that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign nation. [1]
- ↑ Such a definition is a working one: "All attempts to develop terminological consensus around "nation" resulted in failure", concludes . Walker Connor, in [] discusses the impressions surrounding the characters of “nation", “(sovereign) state", "nation state", and “nationalism”. Connor, who gave the term “ethnonationalism” wide currency, also discusses the tendency to confuse nation and state and the treatment of all states as if nation states. In Globalization and Belonging, Sheila L. Crouche discusses "The Definitional Dilemma" (pp. 85ff).
1997
- (Meyer et al., 1997) ⇒ John W. Meyer, John Boli, George M. Thomas, and Francisco O. Ramirez. (1997). “World Society and the Nation-State.” In: American Journal of Sociology, 103(1).