A Strong System of Government and a Running Economy - Essay Example

Insert of less Nation The term has been used confusingly by many people todayto denote any country in the world which has people inhabiting it. However, it is good to note that the term state has a meaning which goes far much beyond just a mere group of people loving in a given region or within some given territorial boundary. It will actually sound s absurd or fascinating for someone to talk or hear someone talk about a stateless nation. To some it may have no meaning at all while to others, it may mean something so different from what this actually refers to. To this extent, for us to be able to fully understand the meaning accorded to this term stateless nation, a number of considerations have to be put in place. This paper will look at what a stateless nation is and describe an example f a stateless nation in the contemporary world or a stateless nation which existed before. Understanding what a stateless nation requires that one distinguishes between a state and a nation in order to be able to draw the line separating the two. In this way therefore we will easily discern what a stateless nation is. To begin with, we will start by defining what a nation is and give examples of outstanding nations in the world today. From the definition, we can delimit as many nations as there are people bearing the same phenomenal similarities. Several nations therefore exist in the world as long as they are composed of people with the same characteristics shown above. The other most important thing that we can get from the definition above is that a nation refers to a group of people and not any other thing. That is a nation is composed of people bearing similar historical and social characteristics. A nation can therefore be as small as a single ethnic group possessing the same characters described above or may be very big to an extent that they even have an organized system of ruling. An example of such a large nation with an organized system of ruling is the Baganda kingdom of Uganda composed of only one tribe but with a clearly defined system of ruling since time immemorial The other controversial aspect is that of a state. This is the term that has been mostly abused in terms of its usage by people around the world today. There are several states as people may argue currently. However, we will find out what the right definition of the term state actually refers to by giving basic examples to enable us actualize the basics behind it. According to Luis understanding of the term state, a state refers to a group of people with an organized system of ruling as well as an organized economy which is run by this state’s government. A state must not necessarily be composed of people of the same historical origin or cultural background, for instance same religious practices, language and other cultural aspects as in the case of a nation but may be composed of people from different historical backgrounds with different cultural beliefs and practices. (Luis) Certain things are however mandatory for such a group to be called a state, these includes a clear system of ruling which can be headed by a king or queen like in the case of monarchial states such as Britain, Korea, Swaziland among others. A state can also have her head being a president who is accorded exclusive powers to rule over his or her people. This is the most common type of states that are in existence in the current world. The bother notable thing about states is that a state must also have an organized economy besides having clearly defined system of ruling as noted above. This organized economy must also be operational and be run by the governments of these states. A system can therefore have a clear system of government put in place but cannot depend on her economy for the sustenance of her people, such then do not qualify as states other than just being any other system of government. There are several states as we can see from our definition above. To this extent therefore we can now find out what a stateless nation is by combining the two terms together. According to Michelmann, Hans J. and Soldatos, Panayotis a stateless nation refers to a state without a clear system of ruling and without an organized economy which is operational (Michelmann and Soldatos). We can discern from this that a stateless nation has people within it as a nation is composed of people, however, these people have no clearly defined system of government and cannot depend often their own as the economy is not developed to help them. An example of such a stateless nation is Somalia which has existed as a nation but without clearly defined system of government for about fifteen years up to very late in the year 2010 when they had their first democratically elected president though operating under a lot of difficulties to date There are certain things that determine the existence of a state ad ensuring her long lasting system of government. Among these is the aspect of nationalism. Luis defines nationalism as follows Nationalism is a form of identity politics. It involves establishing boundaries between groups by providing objective markers such as language with subjective meaning (Luis). In this therefore what Luis means in he is definition of the term nationalism is the aspect of owing allegiance to the system of ruling or simply being able to identify with a given system of government. Many states that have been very powerful in the world today and which have had international reputation and influence are certainly led by leaders who are strong and real nationalist. These are the most upstanding states in the world today. Nationalism is what brings various nations within a state together to form an organized system of ruling qualifying them as states. The absence of the spirit of nationalism among various states will then result into the existence of tension and various vagaries which will certainly disrupt the system of government that is put in place to oversee the mode o operation that the state is run on. Such countries will therefore undergo a series of political turmoil which only lead to secession in the states resulting into various nations ruling themselves within the same state with or without a clear system of an organized economy. Examples of such states which have undergone periods of secession due to lack of nationalism among her people include Canada which had Quebec pull out of the Canadian government to begin her own state. Others are Eretria which seceded out of Ethiopia and the most recent secession in Sudan where the southern and the northern states parted ways each becoming an independent state of her own. Llera notes that the absence of nationalism in a given state is very costly in terms of economic development as it disrupts the economies of these states by interfering with the programs laid by the governments of these states to uphold and develop their own economies. It is the spirit of nationalism that brings every sector of the economy together and initiating and streamlining the operations of the governments in running the economy (Llera). Nationalistic states therefore have very powerfully developed economies irrespective of the size of the States. An example in this case is the United States of America which has unified together a total of fifty two states under one umbrella with a common goal each working I accordance t the set objectives of the larger state making her the most powerful economy in the world. In conclusion therefore, it is good to note here that several regions which are referred to as States in the world today are actually not states but nations all occurring in a given territorial boundary. A state must qualify to have a strong system o government and a running economy which is actually not in place by a strong sense of nationalism. Powerful states in the world today are those that have strong nationalistic systems of governments. Works Cited Llera, Francisco José. Basque polarization: Between Autonomy and Independence:Identity and Territorial Autonomy in Plural Societies. London: Frank Cass, 2001. Luis, Moreno. "Decentralization in Britain and Spain." The case of Scotland and Catalonia (1986): 102-111. Michelmann, Hans J. and Soldatos, Panayotis. Federalism and Internationainsel Relations. The Role of Subnational Units. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. Read More