Information AboutCountry |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT COUNTRY | |
| countries | |
| human geography | |
|
In Political Geography and International Politics , a country is a Political Division of a geographical entity, a Sovereign Territory , most commonly associated with the notions of State or Nation and Government . In common usage, the term 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.http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/aia1901230/s22.html, http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/disp.pl/au/cases/cth/federal%5fct/1997/912.html, http://foia.state.gov/masterdocs/09fam/0941104X1.pdf http://www.economist.com/theworldin/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3372495&d=2005 http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/84411.pdf, while in some occasions it refers only to ''state''. About.com:"Geography: Country, State, and Nation". It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison. countryreports.org , cia.gov , guinnessworldrecords.com , guinnessworldrecords.com There are dozens of non- Sovereign territories (subnational entities, another form of political division or Administrative Division within the expanse or scope of a larger nation-state) which constitute cohesive geographical entities, some of which are former countries, but which are not sovereign states. Most of these nowadays even have a great deal of autonomy and local governments but such do not constitute a nation as they are possessions of such statesas several states have Overseas dependencies, with territory and citizenry separate from their own. Such Dependencies are sometimes listed together with states on lists of countries. TYPES State See Also: 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 Vatican City . The Republic Of China (Taiwan) is the only sovereign state that is no longer a member of the United Nations.This is primarily due to the People's Republic Of China 's "One-China" policy, which requires states to give no official recognition to the ROC (Taiwan) as a condition of maintaining diplomatic relations with the PRC. Despite this, the Island Nation of the ROC (Taiwan) is recognized as a Sovereign Independent State by 24 states, including the Holy See of 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 Abkhazia , 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. Nation See Also: 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 Nationalist s, may consider their single nation (or country) to be divided between different states. Constituent countries See Also: Constituent Country Four of the constituent parts of the , 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 and Wales as a Principality . Whether these are countries in any sense other then the locals is debatable. NATION, COUNTRY AND STATE: A COMPARISON The casual use of 'country', 'state' and 'nation' as . 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 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 Government s 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.) However, nations may also be defined by culture instead of ethnicity. SEE ALSO
REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|