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hera_rises in fandomhigh

Interstellar Relations, Monday, 5th Period

Sep 11, 2006 14:52

The lights were dimmed as students entered the room and signed in. Professor Roslin sat at her desk, a laptop computer angled off to her right. The most immediately visible item, however, was the large plasma screen with the accompanying SmartBoard, illuminated behind her. Closer inspection showed that the image on the board was simply a larger ( Read more... )

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Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition hera_rises September 11 2006, 18:58:24 UTC

What is a state, and how do we define it? What is the difference between a state and a nation? Is there a difference?

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition the_right_ray September 11 2006, 19:12:28 UTC

"A state's smaller than a nation," Ray guessed, not really good with this sort of thing. "USA is a nation, Virginia is a state."

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition hera_rises September 11 2006, 19:16:48 UTC

Laura furrowed her brow. She was suddenly thankful she had been up most of the night, reading everything she could about her current surroundings. "Sort of," she said slowly. "If we look at it in terms of the US and it's component states, what do we get? What differences are there between the US and, say, Virginia?" She paused. "Aside from acreage."

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition the_right_ray September 11 2006, 19:20:08 UTC

"Uh..." Ray furrowed his brow. "Level of control over things? Or something like that. The US can govern Virginia but Virginia can't go and govern like Montana or something."

He's really not good at this.

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition hera_rises September 11 2006, 19:28:44 UTC

Regarding Ray, Laura nodded, that prickle of recognition once again surfacing. Who is it he reminds me of? It's not the hair... Aloud, she continued on the thread of the conversation. "Okay, so if Virginia can't pass laws regarding...Montana...what does it lack over Montana? Do you know? There's actually a specific term for it."

[Hint: A sovereign has it over his or her people. =)]

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition the_right_ray September 11 2006, 19:37:30 UTC

"Power? No, not power," he said and shook his head. "Political leverage?"

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition hera_rises September 11 2006, 20:09:15 UTC

"Close." Laura paused and turned, writing it on the white board: sovereignty. "The right to rule, the right to make laws over a state's own citizens and within the political boundaries.

"The parallel has to stop here, however, because in the international system, there is a larger difference between a nation and a state. If we zoom out and look at the world as a whole, we see that each country -- each recognized political system -- is a state. A state, at this point, has sovereignty over its people, over its lands; it can make laws governing those. A nation may or may not have those abilities."

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition once_a_king September 11 2006, 19:18:29 UTC

"A nation is...people," Peter said, trying to put some of his reading into context. "It's a group of people bound by heritage, but a state is a political entity."

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition tatooine_doofus September 11 2006, 19:29:35 UTC

Luke nodded. "A group identity," he added. "Which stays stable despite what government might be in control."

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition hera_rises September 11 2006, 19:30:32 UTC

"Okay... so how do we define a nation? What characteristics does it have?"

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition once_a_king September 11 2006, 19:41:02 UTC

"A shared culture perhaps? A common history or language. Perhaps a historical enemy?" Peter said.

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition tatooine_doofus September 11 2006, 19:44:47 UTC

"A unifying idea," Luke added. "Back home, the Empire covers hundreds of star systems, billions of people. The languages and cultures aren't necessarily the same. But there's more to it than everyone tuning into the same Holonet programs."

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition hera_rises September 11 2006, 20:20:52 UTC

Laura nodded and made a mental note to see what she could find out about this empire that Luke lived under.

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition ktarian_wildman September 11 2006, 19:46:19 UTC

"A state is a specific region," Naomi said, not sure if she was going the right way or not, "a nation is the entire area of people, in which the state is also included,"

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition hera_rises September 11 2006, 20:24:58 UTC

"Okay. So that's mostly a physical definition -- which is important. These lines on the map represent various states. These states actually make up the international system.

"In a larger context, the states can be viewed as planets and planetary systems...all interacting with one another, and all with different nationalities dotted among them."

Re: Discussion: States, Nations, Recognition ktarian_wildman September 11 2006, 20:38:43 UTC

"So like the United Federation of Planets?" Naomi asked, then realising that her teacher might not have actually heard of the UFP, she elaborated, "one organization made up of many different planets,"

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