Country

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For other uses, see Country (disambiguation).

In political geography and international politics a country is a geographical entity, a territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation. In common usage, it is used casually in the sense of both "nation" (a cultural entity; see below) and "state" (a political entity; see below). Definitions may vary. It is sometimes used to refer to both states and some other political entities.^[1], while in some occasions it refers only to state.^[2] It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison.^[3]

There are dozens of non-sovereign territories which constitute geographical countries, but are not sovereign states. Several states have overseas dependencies, with territory and citizenry separate from their own. They are sometimes listed together with states on lists of countries.^[3]

1 Types
2 Nation, country and state: a comparison
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Types

[edit] State

Main article: State

A state is an independent territory with a government, a population, and sovereignty over these. The entire landmass of the Earth (excluding Antarctica), along with coastal seas is considered to be divided among such countries. There are currently 193 states recognized by the United Nations — its 192 members and the Vatican City.

In addition to these, there are other non sovereign territories which, under the philosophy of self-determination, wish to be considered countries in this sense. Some of these have de facto control over their population and territory, such as Abkazia, but are not considered states as they are not recognised as having sovereignty. On the other hand, in some internationally-recognised states, there is no functioning central government or there are several de facto states and governments. These are internationally not considered to constitute separate states, but rather to exist on the territory of the internationally recognised state.

[edit] Nation

Main article: Nation

A nation is a 'set of people with a common identity who have formed a nation-state or usually aspire to do so' (Viotti and Kauppi, 2001). In this sense of country, the reference is more likely to be to a group that supposedly shares a common ethnic origin, language, religion, or history (real or illusory).

The term has become synonymous with 'country' where nations without sovereignty (that is, nations that are not states) have aimed to identify themselves on the same terms as sovereign states. Others, including nationalists, may consider their single nation (or country) to be divided between different states.

[edit] Constituent countries

Main article: Constituent Country

Four of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, which itself may be considered a country in the sense of this article, are called first order administrative areas and sometimes referred to countries in their own right: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (see constituent countries of the United Kingdom). Northern Ireland is also sometimes referred to as a province of the United Kingdom.

[edit] Nation, country and state: a comparison

The casual use of 'country', 'state' and 'nation' as synonyms leads to confusion. Confounding this is the often confused official use: for example, the United Nations is actually a body made of 'states'; and the countries constituting the United Kingdom are sometimes called the home nations.

The United Kingdom is an internationally recognised sovereign state, which is also referred to as a country and whose inhabitants have British nationality. The terminology can be further complicated by the use of the word state to mean a non-sovereign sub-entity of a sovereign state, as is done in the United States of America (many of which, however, maintain that they are sovereign and independent states ^[4]) and Australia. In most English-speaking countries when the terms state, nation and country are used internally, they are understood by the context in which they are used and are not controversial. However, when these terms are used to describe the statehood aspirations of a people who do not currently live in the internationally recognised independent State they would like to dominate, these terms can be controversial and open to misunderstanding.

In reality, there is often a rough correspondence between both senses of country - this is the concept of the nation-state. It is one that many governments have attempted to encourage, in order to provide legitimacy to their control over a territory. However, because of historical and modern migration, ethnically homogeneous communities are rare or non-existent - Iceland and Japan being the most commonly quoted exceptions (and even this ignores minority aboriginal groups, such as the Ainu and Ryūkyūans, in the case of Japan.)

[edit] See also

Nation-state for the history of the development of the modern nation states
List of countries
Lists by country
List of sovereign states
List of international rankings
Constituent Countries
State
Dependent area
List of dependent territories
List of subnational entities
ISO 3166-1, list of countries and corresponding international standard codes
Country calling codes, list of telephone prefixes
List of country name etymologies
List of enclaves and exclaves
Territory
Border
List of Populations

[edit] References

Anderson, Benedict; 'Imagined Communities: Reflections On the origin and Spread of Nationalism'; London, Verso; 1991
Viotti, Paul R. and Kauppi, Mark V.; 'International Relations and World Politics - Security, Economy, Identity'; Second Edition; New Jersey, Prentice Hall; 2001