Editing Nation state (section)

== Characteristics ==
{{more citations needed section|date=October 2015}} 
[[File:Cold War border changes.png|thumb|260px|Changes in national boundaries after the dissolutions of the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] and [[Dissolution of Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]], the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]] and the [[reunification of Germany]]]]
"Legitimate states that govern effectively and dynamic industrial economies are widely regarded today [2004] as the defining characteristics of a modern nation-state."<ref>{{cite book |last=Kohli |first=Atul |author-link=Atul Kohli |year=2004 |title=State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_r7wLD--VoC&pg=PA1 |page=1 |isbn=978-0-521-54525-9 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Nation-states have their characteristics differing from pre-national states. For a start, they have a different attitude to their territory compared to dynastic monarchies: it is semisacred and nontransferable. No nation would swap territory with other states simply, for example, because the king's daughter married. They have a different type of [[border]], in principle, defined only by the national group's settlement area. However, many nation-states also sought natural borders (rivers, mountain ranges). They are constantly changing in population size and power because of the limited restrictions of their borders.

The most noticeable characteristic is the degree to which nation-states use the state as an instrument of national unity in economic, social and cultural life.

The nation-state promoted economic unity by abolishing internal [[customs]] and [[Toll road|tolls]]. In Germany, that process, the creation of the [[Zollverein]], preceded formal national unity. Nation states typically have a policy to create and maintain national transportation infrastructure, facilitating trade and travel. In 19th-century Europe, the expansion of the [[rail transport]] networks was at first largely a matter for [[Private enterprise|private]] railway companies but gradually came under the control of the national governments. The French rail network, with its main lines radiating from Paris to all corners of France, is often seen as a reflection of the centralised French nation-state, which [[History of rail transport in France|directed its construction]]. Nation states continue to build, for instance, specifically national [[motorway]] networks. Specifically, transnational infrastructure programmes, such as the [[Trans-European Networks]], are a recent innovation.

The nation-states typically had a more centralised and uniform [[public administration]] than their imperial predecessors: they were smaller, and the population was less diverse. (The internal diversity of the [[Ottoman Empire]], for instance, was very great.) After the 19th-century triumph of the nation-state in Europe, regional identity was subordinate to national identity in regions such as [[Alsace-Lorraine]], [[Catalonia]], [[Brittany]] and [[Corsica]]. In many cases, the regional administration was also subordinated to the central (national) government. This process was partially reversed from the 1970s onward, with the introduction of various forms of [[regional autonomy]], in formerly [[Centralised government|centralised]] states such as [[Spain]] or [[Italy]].

The most apparent impact of the nation-state, as compared to its non-national predecessors, is creating a uniform national [[culture]] through state policy. The model of the nation-state implies that its population constitutes a [[nation]], united by a common descent, a common language and many forms of shared culture. When implied unity was absent, the nation-state often tried to create it. It promoted a uniform national language through [[language policy]]. The creation of national systems of compulsory [[primary education]] and a relatively uniform [[curriculum]] in secondary schools was the most effective instrument in the spread of the [[national language]]s. The schools also taught national history, often in a [[Historiography and nationalism|propagandistic and mythologised version]], and (especially during conflicts) some nation-states still teach this kind of history.<ref>Council of Europe, Committee of Ministers Recommendation Rec(2001)15 on history teaching in 21st-century Europe (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 31 October 2001 at the 771st meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/thema01.htm#4 |title=History Interpretation as a Cause of Conflicts in Europe |publisher=UNITED for Intercultural Action |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004025938/http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/thema01.htm#4 |archive-date=4 October 2006 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Eric |last1=Hobsbawm |author1-link=Eric Hobsbawm |first2=Terence |last2=Ranger |author2-link=Terence Ranger |year=1992 |title=The Invention of Tradition |location=New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-43773-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Billie |last=Melman |author-link=Billie Melman |s2cid=162362628 |title=Claiming the Nation's Past: The Invention of an Anglo-Saxon Tradition |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |volume=26 |issue=3/4 |jstor=260661 |year=1991 |pages=575–595 |doi=10.1177/002200949102600312}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Christopher |last=Hughes |title=Robert Stone Nation-Building and Curriculum Reform in Hong Kong and Taiwan |journal=[[China Quarterly]] |volume=160 |year=1999 |pages=977–991 |doi=10.1017/s0305741000001405|s2cid=155033800 |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/23033/2/Nation-building_and_curriculum_reform_in_Hong_Kong_and_Taiwan.pdf}}</ref>

Language and cultural policy was sometimes hostile, aimed at suppressing non-national elements. Language [[prohibition]]s were sometimes used to accelerate the adoption of national languages and the decline of [[minority language]]s (see examples: [[Anglicisation]], [[Bulgarization]], [[Croatization]], [[Czechization]], [[Dutchification]], [[Francisation]], [[Germanisation]], [[Hellenization]], [[Hispanicization]], [[Italianization]], [[Lithuanization]], [[Magyarisation]], [[Polonisation]], [[Russification]], [[Serbization]], [[Slovakisation]], [[Swedification]], [[Turkification]]).

In some cases, these policies triggered bitter conflicts and further ethnic [[separatism]]. But where it worked, the cultural uniformity and homogeneity of the population increased. Conversely, the cultural divergence at the border became sharper: in theory, a uniform French identity extends from the Atlantic coast to the [[Rhine]], and on the other bank of the Rhine, a uniform German identity begins. Both sides have divergent [[language policy]] and educational systems to enforce that model.