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This article refers to a state in which a single nation is dominant. There is also an article on the Internet game
NationStates. See also State (disambiguation).
The term nation state (or nation-state), while often used interchangeably with the terms
unitary state and independent state, refers properly used to states in which a single nation is
dominant. A nation state may at the same time be a federal
state, as for instance the Federal Republic
of Germany and the United States of America.
Over the last few centuries (and particular over the last half-century, except in Africa), this form of state has become more
common, so that now most states claim to be nation states. However, this has not always been so; and even today there are some
states where it is questionable whether they contain a single dominant nation. This is made more difficult by the question of
what is a nation.
There are many states, such as Belgium and Switzerland, with multiple linguistic, religious or ethnic groups within them, without any one being clearly
dominant. However, often (and especially in the case of Switzerland and the United States) a bridging national identity has been
constructed despite these differences. A better example of a non-nation state would be the United Kingdom, which consists of the four nations England,
Scotland, Northern
Ireland and Wales. Although England was overwhelmingly dominant within the United
Kingdom in the past, that can no longer be so clearly stated as the case.
A somewhat similar example might be contemporary Spain, where Basques, Catalans, and Galicians claim to be nations distinct from the historically dominant Castile (the Spanish Constitution
of 1978 hints at this by mentioning "regions and nationalities" within Spain, and recognizing implicitly their
pre-existence).
Historically France was more successful at subsuming within a Gallic nation-state such culturally disparate elements as
Brittany, Aquitaine, Languedoc and Burgundy, though less so in
Corsica.
In many cases, such as Canada, Switzerland, United States of America, Indonesia, the Soviet Union,
India, and China, efforts have been made to
create a national identity that encompasses different groups within that country. In the case of China this effort has manifested itself in the concept of Zhonghua minzu (or a Chinese people).
Examples of non-nation states are empires which embrace more than one nation,
city-states which may be part of a larger nation, thalassocracies, American Indian nations or
tribes none of which possess states, and sovereign corporations (as in the Hudson's Bay
Company or the British East India Company).
The Palestinians are sometimes referred to as a
Nation without a state, much as European Jews before the official creation of Israel in
1948.
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