Module 3: Nations, States, and Regimes

• A nation is “a group of people with a sense of unity based on the importance the group attributes to a shared trait, attribute, or custom”.
• Nations do not completely fall within the same category as so-called ‘ethnic groups.’


  Ethnic groups share a common cultural and historical identity

  linked to a belief in common descent.
• Nations regard themselves as a political community with collective political aspirations such as the pursuit or desire for a certain level autonomy to full-fledged independence and statehood.
• J.W. Garner defines the state as, “a community of persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government of their own to which the great

  body of inhabitants render habitual obedience, and enjoying freedom from external control.”
• 4 elements of state: (1) People; (2) Territory; (3) Government; (4) Sovereignty.
• People: The population inhabiting the State be it citizens or non-citizens.
• Territory: The geographically defined boundaries covering the jurisdiction of the State.
• Government: The formal and institutional processes that operate at the national level to maintain public order and facilitate collective action.
• Sovereignty refers to absolute and unrestricted power ensuring a

  state’s independence autonomy from the control and interventions

  of other states.
• Governance: refers to “the various ways through which social life is coordinated.”
• Legitimacy: is intertwined with sovereignty wherein “citizens view the state’s sovereignty as appropriate, proper, or acceptable”.
• The two other concepts are closely related to the core components of a state: governance and legitimacy.
• The state is more extensive than the government.
• The state is a continuing, even permanent, entity; the government is temporary.


  The government is the means through which the state is brought into operation.
• The state exercises impersonal authority. 


  The state (in theory) represents the common good of society while the government represents the partisan interests of those in power at the time.
• Democratic regime: Balances the principle of limited government against the ideal of popular consent. 


  Key features: Political pluralism and private-enterprise economy.
• East Asian regime: Particularly in East and Southeast Asia that commonly practice a distinctive set of Asian values in their rule. 


  Key features: Emphasis on community and social cohesion.
• Islamic regimes: aims at constructing a theocracy in which political and other affairs are structured according to ‘higher’ religious principles.


  Key features: Elected parliament and Council for the Protection of the Constitution.
• Military regime: broadly characterized as authoritarian rule wherein

  the leading posts of the government are filled on the basis of the person’s position within the military chain of command.
• Civil society: A private sphere of autonomous groups and associations, independent from state or public authority.
• Idealism: A view of politics that emphasizes the importance of morality and ideals.
• The state is sovereign. It exercises absolute and unrestricted power.
• The state is an instrument of domination. State authority is backed up by coercion; the state must have the capacity to ensure that its laws are obeyed and that transgressors are punished.
• The state is an exercise in legitimation. The decisions of the state are usually (although not necessarily) accepted as binding on the members of society because, it is claimed, they are made in the public interest, or for common good.
• Nation-state: A sovereign political association within which citizenship and nationality overlap; one nation within a single state.
• Political obligation: The duty of the citizen towards the state; the basis of the state’s right to rule.
• Statism is the belief that state intervention is the most appropriate means of resolving political problems, or bringing about economic and social development.
• State: is a political association that establishes sovereign jurisdiction within defined territorial borders, and exercises authority through a set of permanent institutions.
• Nation-state: A sovereign political association within which citizenship and nationality overlap; one nation within a single state.