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Country

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General Geography

          This article describes country as a type of geographical or
          political entity. Country may also refer to the countryside or
          the country music genre, or the 1984 film of that name.

   In political geography and international politics a country is a
   geographical territory. A dictionary definition would be "the land of a
   person's birth, residence, or citizenship; a political state or nation
   or its territory". In common usage, it 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., while in some
   occasions it refers only to State. It is not uncommon for general
   information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition
   for purposes such as illustration and comparison.

   This disparity is also reflected in general English usage. Usage within
   the United Kingdom tend to adopt a wider definition of the word
   country. Furthermore, the word is also used to refer to the constituent
   parts of the United Kingdom (see below). In most usages outside the UK,
   however, the term country carries with it strong connotations of
   political independence, and it may be considered politically incorrect
   by neutral observers to refer to Tibet as a country, for example.

   There are dozens of non- sovereign territories which constitute
   geographical countries, but are not sovereign states. Several States
   have overseas dependencies, with territory and citizenry separate from
   their own. They are sometimes listed together with States on lists of
   countries.

Characteristics

   A country usually has its own government, administration and laws; and
   often a constitution, police, military, tax rules, and a population who
   are referred to as one another's countrymen. Together they form what
   Benedict Anderson has referred to as an imagined community.

Types

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 (countries) recognised
   by the United Nations — its 192 members and the 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 Abkazia, 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

   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 imagined). 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 nationalists, may consider their
   single nation (or country) to be divided between different States.

Constituent countries

   Four of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, which itself may
   be considered a country in the sense of this article, are also called
   countries: England, 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.

Nation, country and state: a comparison

   The casual use of 'country', 'State' and 'nation' as synonyms leads to
   confusion. Confounding this is the often confused official use: for
   example, the United Nations is actually a body made of 'States'; and
   the countries constituting the United Kingdom are often called the home
   nations.

   In the English language, the terms nation (cultural), country
   (geographical) and State (political) do have precise meanings, but in
   daily speech and writing they are often used interchangeably, and are
   open to different interpretations. For example, Cornwall is considered
   by some to be a nation in England which is a constituent country, or
   home nation, of the United Kingdom. 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 (many of which, however, maintain that they
   are sovereign and independent states ) 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 inhabit, 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 governments 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).

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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