"Giovanni Drogo" wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.61.0608211037500.25928@cbfrvqba.ynzoengr.vans.vg...
> On Fri, 18 Aug 2006, Hatunen wrote:
>
>> To confuse matters even more, each of us Americans are citizens of the
>> state in which we reside, as well as citizens of the United States of
>> America. In the EU each person is a citizen of the his or her state
>> (to use the more general meaning) as well as a citizen of the EU.
>
> I believe we Europeans fail to see US "states" (or even brazilian or
> mexican "states") to be of the same rank as European states. Canadians
> call similar entities "provinces" which is more up to our feeling.
>
>> So what now constitutes a "country"?
>
> And a "nation" ?
>
>> And let's not even get into the question of Flnders v Wallonia or
>> England v Scotland. Or maybe we should.
>
> The impression is that for us a state or nation has something to do
> first with a language, then with the "rule" or "rulers" (in the past I'd
> said with "a king", now I say "either a republican ordering or a king"),
> and perhaps with religion (remember also the "cuius regio eius
> religio").
>
> Where the 3 things do not coincide, it is likely there are troubles (or
> there have been at some time in history).
From the social science point of view, a "country" is a political entity
with boundaries, while a "nation" is made up of those bound by religion,
ethnicity, etc. Thus the problem in the former Yugoslavia -- too many
nations in one country, and as you said, many troubles :-)
|