Learn about the key Characteristics of A Nation State and distinguish it from other forms of political organizations. Characteristics of a nation-state explained in detail.
In a broad sense, a nation is any historical and cultural human community capable of providing individuals with a sense of identity that differentiates them from individuals belonging to other cultures . It usually has a territory that it considers its own.
Today the nation is understood in two different ways:
- The political nation. It is the holder of the sovereignty of the peoples, responsible for implementing the norms contemplated in the legal framework by which they decide to govern themselves, and which will be the guarantors of the functioning of the State.
- The cultural nation. This is a difficult concept in the social sciences , which refers to the ethical-political body of characteristics shared by the inhabitants of a nation, in terms of language, religion, tradition or common history , within the framework of the construction of a “national identity”.
Characteristics of a Nation State: What Defines a Country?
- Territory . All nations on the planet have, in one way or another, a territory which they consider their home and in whose land their dead ancestors rest. This is much more complicated to define for certain nomadic nations, such as the Saharan tribes, but this is because they maintain a non-agricultural lifestyle, and in that sense they do not require a fixed territory, but rather a series of intermittent territories.
- Language. Every nation has an official language, in which its bureaucracy, legal code and historical documents are written, and with which its population identifies itself. In some cases, there may be several official languages, since in the same country there may be more than one culture, but one is always considered predominant, above the others.
- Government . Every nation governs itself or is affiliated with a common government (in the case of plurinational states). This government runs the State, imposes the legal code and organizes the population, in addition to exercising sovereignty in the national territory on behalf of the people.
- Population . There is no nation without inhabitants who make it up, that is, without a people who speak its language, who inhabit its territory and who obey its laws . In other words, there are no nations without people.
Examples of nation
- The Kurdish Nation. The Kurds are an Indo-European people who inhabit the border region between Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, known as the Kurdistan Mountains . Although they exist as a nation and as an ethnic group, they do not have a state and therefore cannot determine themselves, but instead ascribe to the laws of the four states mentioned above, despite not sharing their “national identities”.
- The Jewish Nation. The Jewish people were stateless, meaning they lacked their own territory for thousands of years, and thus had to exist in nation-states as foreigners. However, they retained a strong hold on their identity, built on the practice of the Jewish religion. That is why there can be Jews of different nationalities, even today when there is the State of Israel, home to all those who consider themselves Jews, although they may or may not be Israelis.
- Bolivian nations. The Plurinational State of Bolivia exists as a South American country, located in the heart of the subcontinent, but at the same time it recognizes itself as a State composed of multiple indigenous nations, such as the Aymara, Quechua, Yuracar, Cachicana, Ayoreo, Guaraní, Afro-Bolivians and many more.