nation? state? what is the different?

[AaRON4]

what is the different? does it really matter? matter on what kinds of situations?

give me a few examples please.

[Zip]

what is the different? does it really matter? matter on what kinds of situations?

give me a few examples please.

A State (note the capital "S") is a self-governing political entity. The term State can be used interchangeably with country.

A nation, however, is a tightly-knit group of people which share a common culture. A nation-state is a nation which has the same borders as a State.

In Canada, Le Quebecois are recognized as a Nation, although the province of Quebec is not a State. Similarly Aboriginal peoples are often referred to as Nations, though they may not have a State of their own.

Japan is a good example of a Nation-State, in which the territorial boundaries of the State conform to the same boundaries as the mostly homogeneous National Japanese people and culture.

It matters because one has legally recognized sovereignty and the other does not under the Westphalian system.

Edited October 19, 2008 by Zip

[punk]

As the previous poster said a state is a legal self-governing entity and a nation is a group of people that sees themselves as a natural unit of some sort.

There was an ideal of a "nation state" where the state would correspond with a nation. Europe spent the roughly 500 years up to WWII brutally pruning its populations in an attempt to create nation states, and is the nearest any old world area has gotten to having nation states.

Many of the problems in Africa and Asia have stemmed from the fact that the notion of "nation state" isn't dead and the groups in power have been trying to eliminate minorities to create actual European-style nation states.