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The Nation-State Past and Present
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A central tenet of global politics first established in the Treaty of Westphalia, which holds that the administrative unit of the state has the sole right to govern its territory and people, free from outside interference.
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The concept that a people should have the opportunity to follow their own political destiny through self-government.
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A politically organized territory that recognizes no higher law and whose population politically identifies with that entity.
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As defined by the political scientist Karl W. Deutsch (1957), social groups with a process of political communication, some machinery for establishing and enforcing collective agreements, and some popular habits of compliance with those agreements.
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The belief that the nation is the ultimate basis of political loyalty and that nations should have self-governing states.
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A political doctrine holding that sovereign political authority ultimately resides with the citizens of a state, to whom a states rulers are accountable.
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A concept associated with liberal political philosophy referring to an implicit understanding between citizens and government detailing their mutual obligations.
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The religious movement initiated by Martin Luther in Germany in 1517 that rejected the Catholic Church as the necessary intermediary between people and God.
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The process of creating both a government and other legal structures of a country and fostering the political identification of the inhabitants of the country with the state.
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A political attitude demanding favored treatment for established inhabitants of a nation-state and resisting the presence or claims of newer immigrants.
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A theoretical time in human history when people lived independently or in family groups and there were no societies of nonrelated individuals or governments.
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A group of culturally and historically similar people who share a communal bond and desire self-government.