List of forms of government
138-400: List of forms of government A nation-state is a political unit where the state , a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory, and the nation , a community based on a common identity, are congruent. It is a more precise concept than " country ", since a country does not need to have a predominant national or ethnic group. A nation , sometimes used in
276-575: A dictatorship or it may be a group, as in a one-party state . The word despotism means to "rule in the fashion of despots" and is often used to describe autocracy. Historical examples of autocracy include the Roman Empire , North Korea , the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , Eritrea and Nazi Germany . Regardless of the form of government, the actual governance may be influenced by sectors with political power which are not part of
414-553: A nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture , history , and language , identified with the country of France . The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from northern and central France, are primarily descended from Romans (or Gallo-Romans , western European Celtic and Italic peoples ), Gauls (including the Belgae ), as well as Germanic peoples such as
552-796: A propagandistic and mythologised version , and (especially during conflicts) some nation-states still teach this kind of history. Language and cultural policy was sometimes hostile, aimed at suppressing non-national elements. Language prohibitions were sometimes used to accelerate the adoption of national languages and the decline of minority languages (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,
690-474: A royal house . Their territory could expand by royal intermarriage or merge with another state when the dynasty merged. In some parts of Europe, notably Germany , minimal territorial units existed. They were recognized by their neighbours as independent and had their government and laws. Some were ruled by princes or other hereditary rulers; some were governed by bishops or abbots . Because they were so small, however, they had no separate language or culture:
828-464: 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 languages . The schools also taught national history, often in
966-646: A community of French Huguenots settled in South Africa . Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony , but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner population. After Champlain's founding of Quebec City in 1608, it became the capital of New France . Encouraging settlement was difficult, and while some immigration did occur, by 1763 New France only had a population of some 65,000. From 1713 to 1787, 30,000 colonists immigrated from France to
1104-437: A form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. A common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Montesquieu included both democracies , where all the people have a share in rule, and aristocracies or oligarchies , where only some of
1242-541: A historical state of human society, especially before the concentration of power afforded by agriculture. It has been presented as a viable long-term choice by individuals known as anarchists who oppose the state and other forms of coercive hierarchies. These systems are often highly organized, and include institutional or cultural systems to prevent the concentration of power. Anarchism typically advocates for social organization in non-hierarchical, voluntary associations where people voluntarily help each other . There are
1380-404: A large geographic area and uses the concept of " Zhonghua minzu " or Chinese nationality, in the sense of ethnic groups . Still, it also officially recognizes the majority Han ethnic group which accounts for over 90% of the population, and no fewer than 55 ethnic national minorities . According to Philip G. Roeder, Moldova is an example of a Soviet-era "segment-state" ( Moldavian SSR ), where
1518-777: A long history of intermarriage. Belgium is a classic example of a state that is not a nation-state. The state was formed by secession from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1830, whose neutrality and integrity was protected by the Treaty of London 1839 ; thus, it served as a buffer state after the Napoleonic Wars between the European powers France , Prussia (after 1871 the German Empire ) and
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#17327661745561656-570: A majority of French people had other first languages (local languages such as Occitan , Catalan , Alsatian , West Flemish , Lorraine Franconian , Gallo , Picard or Ch'timi and Arpitan ). Today, many immigrants speak another tongue at home. According to historian Eric Hobsbawm , "the French language has been essential to the concept of 'France'," although in 1789, 50 percent of the French people did not speak it at all, and only 12 to 13 percent spoke it fairly well; even in oïl languages zones, it
1794-586: A minimum of land, wealth and status. Some critics of capitalism and/or representative democracy think of the United States and the United Kingdom as oligarchies . These categories are not exclusive. Autocracies are ruled by a single entity with absolute power, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regular mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for implicit threat). That entity may be an individual, as in
1932-431: A minimum of wealth and status. Social democracy rejects the "either/or" phobiocratic/polarization interpretation of capitalism versus socialism. Social democracy argues that all citizens should be legally entitled to certain social rights. These are made up of universal access to public services such as: education, health care, workers' compensation, public transportation, and other services including child care and care for
2070-564: A nation-state as a typically sovereign country dominated by a particular ethnicity. The relationship between a nation (in the ethnic sense) and a state can be complex. The presence of a state can encourage ethnogenesis , and a group with a pre-existing ethnic identity can influence the drawing of territorial boundaries or argue for political legitimacy . This definition of a "nation-state" is not universally accepted. "All attempts to develop terminological consensus around 'nation' failed", concludes academic Valery Tishkov . Walker Connor discusses
2208-577: A number of small, wealthy, trade-based city-states embraced republican ideals, notably across Italy and the Baltic. In general, these mercantile republics arose in regions of Europe where feudal control by an absolutist monarchy was minimal or absent completely. In these mercantile republics, the leaders were elected by the citizenry with the primary duty of increasing the city-state's collective wealth. Many political systems can be described as socioeconomic ideologies. Experience with those movements in power and
2346-410: 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 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
2484-645: A political significance. In these cases, the nationalist sentiment and the nationalist movement precede the unification of the German and Italian nation-states. Historians Hans Kohn, Liah Greenfeld, Philip White, and others have classified nations such as Germany or Italy, where they believe cultural unification preceded state unification, as ethnic nations or ethnic nationalities . However, "state-driven" national unifications, such as in France, England or China, are more likely to flourish in multiethnic societies, producing
2622-517: A reflection of the centralised French nation-state, which 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
2760-429: A single, vastly powerful corporation deposes a weak government, over time or in a coup d'état . Some political scientists have also considered state socialist nations to be forms of corporate republics, with the state assuming full control of all economic and political life and establishing a monopoly on everything within national boundaries – effectively making the state itself amount to a giant corporation. Probably
2898-683: A standalone entity or as a hybrid system of the main three. Scholars generally refer to a dictatorship as either a form of authoritarianism or totalitarianism. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato discusses in the Republic five types of regimes: aristocracy , timocracy , oligarchy , democracy, and tyranny . The question raised by Plato in the Republic : What kind of state is best? Generational changes informed by new political and cultural beliefs, technological progress, values and morality over millenniums have resulted in considerable shifts in
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#17327661745563036-496: 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
3174-511: A state. In Germany, neither Jews nor the Roma were considered part of the people, and both were specifically targeted for persecution. German nationality law defined "German" based on German ancestry, excluding all non-Germans from the people. In recent years, a nation-state's claim to absolute sovereignty within its borders has been criticized. A global political system based on international agreements and supra-national blocs characterized
3312-556: A traditional national heritage of civic nations , or territory-based nationalities . The idea of a nation-state was and is associated with the rise of the modern system of states, often called the " Westphalian system ", following the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). The balance of power , which characterized that system, depended for its effectiveness upon clearly defined, centrally controlled, independent entities, whether empires or nation states, which recognize each other's sovereignty and territory. The Westphalian system did not create
3450-747: A uniformity of the population, leading to state nationalism. In the case of the Christian territories of the future Spain , neighboring Al-Andalus , there was an early perception of ethnicity, faith and shared territory in the Middle Ages (13th–14th centuries), as documented by the Chronicle of Muntaner in the proposal of the Castilian king to the other Christian kings of the peninsula: "... if these four Kings of Spain whom he named, who are of one flesh and blood, held together, little need they fear all
3588-570: A variety of forms of anarchy that attempt to discourage the use of coercion, violence, force and authority, while still producing a productive and desirable society. More generally, random selection of decision makers from a larger group is known as sortition (from the Latin base for lottery). The Athenian democracy made much use of sortition, with nearly all government offices filled by lottery (of full citizens) rather than by election. Candidates were almost always male, Greek, educated citizens holding
3726-565: Is achieved, without the care being noticed." From there, actions in the service of assimilation, discreet or aggressive, were continued, and reached to the last detail, such as, in 1799, the Royal Certificate forbidding anyone to "represent, sing and dance pieces that were not in Spanish." These nationalist policies, sometimes very aggressive, and still in force, have been, and still are, the seed of repeated territorial conflicts within
3864-645: Is also cultural, and there is a strong separatist movement espoused by the political parties, the right-wing Vlaams Belang and the New Flemish Alliance . The Francophone Walloon identity of Belgium is linguistically distinct and regionalist . There is also unitary Belgian nationalism , several versions of a Greater Netherlands ideal, and a German-speaking community of Belgium annexed from Germany in 1920 and re-annexed by Germany in 1940–1944. However, these ideologies are all very marginal and politically insignificant during elections. China covers
4002-433: Is also widely spoken, arguably the largest minority language in France as of the 21st century (a spot previously held by Breton and Occitan ). Modern French society is a melting pot . From the middle of the 19th century, it experienced a high rate of inward migration , mainly consisting of Spaniards , Portuguese , Italians , Arab-Berbers , Jews , Sub-Saharan Africans , Chinese , and other peoples from Africa ,
4140-401: Is appointed by the president or elected by the parliament and handles daily administration. The term semi-presidential distinguishes this system from presidential and parliamentary systems. A directorial republic is a government system with power divided among a college of several people who jointly exercise the powers of a head of state and/or a head of government. In the early Renaissance,
4278-497: Is constitutionally a confederation of cantons and has four official languages. Still, it also has a "Swiss" national identity, a national history and a classic national hero, Wilhelm Tell . Innumerable conflicts have arisen where political boundaries did not correspond with ethnic or cultural boundaries. After World War II in the Josip Broz Tito era, nationalism was appealed to for uniting South Slav peoples. Later in
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4416-492: Is defined more broadly. For example, a 2010 International Alert publication defined anocracies as "countries that are neither autocratic nor democratic, most of which are making the risky transition between autocracy and democracy". Alert noted that the number of anocracies had increased substantially since the end of the Cold War. Anocracy is not surprisingly the least resilient political system to short-term shocks: it creates
4554-623: Is estimated that 20,000 settlers were living in Saigon in 1945, and there were 68,430 European settlers living in Madagascar in 1958. 1.6 million European pieds noirs settlers migrated from Algeria , Tunisia and Morocco . In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 pied noir settlers left Algeria in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since the World War II . In
4692-399: Is happening as part of a background evolution and recent studies confirmed the results of their assimilation, showing that "North Africans seem to be characterized by a high degree of cultural integration reflected in a relatively high propensity to exogamy " with rates ranging from 20% to 50%. According to Emmanuel Todd the relatively high exogamy among French Algerians can be explained by
4830-498: Is my home". Indeed, the country has long valued its openness , tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries (for instance, this is the case with Switzerland : one can be both French and Swiss). The European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in
4968-468: Is portrayed primarily in science fiction settings. Examples from popular culture include Gaia in Appleseed French people France: 67,413,000 French diaspora and ancestry : c. 30 million Asia Middle East Europe North America South America Oceania The French people ( French : Les Français , lit. 'The French') are
5106-602: Is such a thing as a "French ethnic group". The discourse of ethno-nationalist groups such as the Front National (FN), however, advances the concept of Français de souche or "indigenous" French. The conventional conception of French history starts with Ancient Gaul, and French national identity often views the Gauls as national precursors, either as biological ancestors (hence the refrain nos ancêtres les Gaulois ), as emotional/spiritual ancestors, or both. Vercingetorix ,
5244-509: Is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes, and influences in conjugation and word order. Today, the last redoubt of Celtic language in France can be found in
5382-629: The Volk , later opposed by Ernest Renan ). The increasing emphasis during the 19th century on the ethnic and racial origins of the nation led to a redefinition of the nation-state in these terms. Racism , which in Boulainvilliers 's theories was inherently anti patriotic and antinationalist, joined itself with colonialist imperialism and "continental imperialism ", most notably in pan-Germanic and pan-Slavic movements. The relationship between racism and ethnic nationalism reached its height in
5520-638: The Americas , with the exception of the Huguenots , due to a lower birthrate than in the rest of Europe. However, significant emigration of mainly Roman Catholic French populations led to the settlement of the Province of Acadia , Canada (New France) and Louisiana , all (at the time) French possessions, as well as colonies in the West Indies , Mascarene islands and Africa . On 30 December 1687,
5658-581: The Balearic Islands , part of Aragon ) and other national minorities, as Basques and Galicians , have been a historical constant. The process of assimilation began with secret instructions to the corregidores of the Catalan territory: they "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian language, for which purpose he will give the most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect
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5796-542: The British Empire , the Dutch Empire and smaller nations at what would now be called sub-state level. The multi-ethnic empire was a monarchy, usually absolute , ruled by a king, emperor or sultan . The population belonged to many ethnic groups, and they spoke many languages. The empire was dominated by one ethnic group, and their language was usually the language of public administration. The ruling dynasty
5934-577: The Cortes del Estatuto Real he defended the effort "To make the Spanish nation a nation that neither is nor has been until now." In 1906, the Catalanist party Solidaritat Catalana was founded to try to mitigate the economically and culturally oppressive treatment of Spain towards the Catalans. One of the responses of Spanish nationalism came from the military state with statements such as that of
6072-525: The Danelaw in the region known today as Normandy in the 9th and 10th centuries. This later became a fiefdom of the Kingdom of France under King Charles III . The Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process. The Normans, two centuries later, went on to conquer England and Southern Italy . Eventually, though, the largely autonomous Duchy of Normandy
6210-1109: The Franks , the Visigoths , the Suebi and the Burgundians who settled in Gaul from east of the Rhine after the fall of the Roman Empire , as well as various later waves of lower-level irregular migration that have continued to the present day. The Norsemen also settled in Normandy in the 10th century and contributed significantly to the ancestry of the Normans . Furthermore, regional ethnic minorities also exist within France that have distinct lineages, languages and cultures such as Bretons in Brittany , Occitans in Occitania , Basques in
6348-865: The French Basque Country , Catalans in northern Catalonia , Germans in Alsace , Corsicans in Corsica and Flemings in French Flanders . France has long been a patchwork of local customs and regional differences, and while most French people still speak the French language as their mother tongue , languages like Picard , Poitevin-Saintongeais , Franco-Provencal , Occitan , Catalan , Auvergnat , Corsican , Basque , French Flemish , Lorraine Franconian , Alsatian , Norman , and Breton remain spoken in their respective regions. Arabic
6486-512: The French Constitution , according to which "French" is a nationality , and not a specific ethnicity. France sits at the edge of the European peninsula and has seen waves of migration of groups that often settled owing to the presence of physical barriers preventing onward migration. This has led to language and regional cultural variegation, but the extent to which this pattern of migrations showed up in population genetics studies
6624-548: The French West Indies ( French Caribbean ), and in foreign countries with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as the United States ( French Americans ), Canada ( French Canadians ), Argentina ( French Argentines ), Brazil ( French Brazilians ), Mexico ( French Mexicans ), Chile ( French Chileans ) and Uruguay ( French Uruguayans ). To be French, according to
6762-515: The Hebrew Bible "gave the world the model of nationhood, and even nation-statehood"; however, after the fall of Jerusalem , the Jews lost this status for nearly two millennia, while still preserving their national identity until "the more inevitable rise of Zionism ", in modern times, which sought to establish a nation-state . Eric Hobsbawm argues that the establishment of a French nation
6900-475: The Industrial Revolution . The pace of industrial growth attracted millions of European immigrants over the next century, with especially large numbers arriving from Poland , Belgium , Portugal , Italy , and Spain . In the period from 1915 to 1950, many immigrants came from Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Russia , Scandinavia and Yugoslavia . Small but significant numbers of Frenchmen in
7038-691: The Middle East and East Asia , and the government, defining France as an inclusive nation with universal values, advocated assimilation through which immigrants were expected to adhere to French values and cultural norms. Nowadays, while the government has let newcomers retain their distinctive cultures since the mid-1980s and requires from them a mere integration , French citizens still equate their nationality with citizenship as does French law. In addition to mainland France, French people and people of French descent can be found internationally, in overseas departments and territories of France such as
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#17327661745567176-551: The Muslim world , immediately after Muhammad died in 632, Caliphates were established. Caliphates were Islamic states under the leadership of a political-religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad . These polities developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires. The Ottoman sultan, Selim I (1512–1520) reclaimed the title of caliph, which had been in dispute and asserted by a diversity of rulers and "shadow caliphs" in
7314-780: The Ottoman Empire broke up after the First World War , but the Russian Empire was replaced by the Soviet Union in most of its multinational territory after the Russian Civil War . A few of the smaller states survived: the independent principalities of Liechtenstein , Andorra , Monaco , and the Republic of San Marino . ( Vatican City is a special case. All of the larger Papal States save
7452-677: The Saint-Domingue . In 1805, when the French were forced out of Saint-Domingue ( Haiti ), 35,000 French settlers were given lands in Cuba . By the beginning of the 17th century, some 20% of the total male population of Catalonia was made up of French immigrants. In the 18th century and early 19th century, a small migration of French emigrated by official invitation of the Habsburgs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire , now
7590-767: The United Kingdom until World War I , when the Germans breached its neutrality. Currently, Belgium is divided between the Flemings in the north, the French-speaking population in the south, and the German-speaking population in the east. The Flemish population in the north speaks Dutch, the Walloon population in the south speaks either French or, in the east of Liège Province , German. The Brussels population speaks French or Dutch. The Flemish identity
7728-543: The United States Census , French people are not asked to define their ethnic appartenance, whichever it may be. The usage of ethnic and racial categorization is avoided to prevent any case of discrimination; the same regulations apply to religious membership data that cannot be compiled under the French Census. This classic French republican non- essentialist conception of nationality is officialized by
7866-744: The War of the Spanish Succession , rooted in the political position of the Count-Duke of Olivares and the absolutism of Philip V , the assimilation of the Crown of Aragon by the Castilian Crown through the Decrees of Nueva Planta was the first step in the creation of the Spanish nation-state. As in other contemporary European states, political union was the first step in the creation of
8004-438: The military , and the police force , would be privatised . The social welfare function carried out by the state is instead carried out by corporations in the form of benefits to employees. Although corporate republics do not exist officially in the modern world, they are often used in works of fiction or political commentary as a warning of the perceived dangers of unbridled capitalism . In such works, they usually arise when
8142-453: The "nation-state project of the segment-state trumped the nation-state project of prior statehood. In Moldova, despite strong agitation from university faculty and students for reunification with Romania , the nation-state project forged within the Moldavian SSR trumped the project for a return to the interwar nation-state project of Greater Romania ." See Controversy over linguistic and ethnic identity in Moldova for further details. Israel
8280-401: The 1789 French Revolution . It replaced the ancient kingdom of France, ruled by the divine right of kings . The 1870 Franco-Prussian War , which led to the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, was instrumental in bolstering patriotic feelings; until World War I (1914–1918), French politicians never completely lost sight of the disputed Alsace-Lorraine region which played a major role in
8418-477: The 1970s, over 30,000 French settlers left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime as the Pol Pot government confiscated their farms and land properties. In the 1960s, a second wave of immigration came to France, which was needed for reconstruction purposes and for cheaper labour after the devastation brought on by World War II . French entrepreneurs went to Maghreb countries looking for cheap labour, thus encouraging work-immigration to France. Their settlement
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#17327661745568556-470: The 19th century, in parallel to the origin of Spanish nationalism , the social, political and ideological movement that tried to shape a Spanish national identity based on the Castilian model, in conflict with the other historical nations of the State. Politicians of the time were aware that despite the aggressive policies pursued up to that time, the uniform and monocultural "Spanish nation" did not exist, as indicated in 1835 by Antonio Alcalà Galiano , when in
8694-459: The 20th century through fascism and Nazism . The specific combination of "nation" ("people") and "state" expressed in such terms as the völkischer Staat and implemented in laws such as the 1935 Nuremberg laws made fascist states such as early Nazi Germany qualitatively different from non-fascist nation-states. Minorities were not considered part of the people ( Volk ) and were consequently denied to have an authentic or legitimate role in such
8832-402: The 20th century, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, leaders appealed to ancient ethnic feuds or tensions that ignited conflict between the Serbs , Croats , and Slovenes , as well as Bosniaks , Montenegrins and Macedonians , eventually breaking up the long collaboration of peoples. Ethnic cleansing was carried out in the Balkans, destroying the formerly socialist republic and producing
8970-427: The 7th century BCE or earlier, and non-Celtic peoples including the Ligures , Aquitanians and Basques in Aquitaine. The Belgae , who lived in the northern and eastern areas, may have had Germanic admixture; many of these peoples had already spoken Gaulish by the time of the Roman conquest. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58–51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar , except for
9108-431: The Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France. The other major Germanic people to arrive in France, after the Burgundians and the Visigoths , were the Norsemen or Northmen . Known by the shortened name " Norman " in France, these were Viking raiders from modern Denmark and Norway . They settled with Anglo-Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons from
9246-413: The French Revolution, it divided social classes, with the peasants identifying with the native Gauls while the aristocracy identified with the Franks. During the early nineteenth century, intellectuals began using the identification with Gaul instead as a unifying force to bridge divisions within French society with a common national origin myth . Myriam Krepps of the University of Nebraska-Omaha argues that
9384-500: The Gaulish chieftain who tried to unite the various Gallic tribes of the land against Roman encroachment but was ultimately vanquished by Julius Caesar , is often revered as a "first national hero". In the famously popular French comic Asterix , the main characters are patriotic Gauls who fight against Roman invaders while in modern days the term Gaulois is used in French to distinguish the "native" French from French of immigrant origins. However, despite its occasional nativist usage,
9522-403: The Gaulish identity has also been embraced by French of non-native origins as well: notably, Napoleon III , whose family was ultimately of Corsican and Italian roots, identified France with Gaul and Vercingetorix, and declared that "New France, ancient France, Gaul are one and the same moral person." It has been noted that the French view of having Gallic origins has evolved over history. Before
9660-457: The Kingdom of the Netherlands are: Each is expressly designated as a land in Dutch law by the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands . Unlike the German Länder and the Austrian Bundesländer , landen is consistently translated as "countries" by the Dutch government. While historical monarchies often brought together different kingdoms/territories/ethnic groups under the same crown, in modern nation states political elites seek
9798-681: The North and Northeast regions have relatives in Germany and Great Britain . Between 1956 and 1967, about 235,000 North African Jews from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco also immigrated to France due to the decline of the French empire and following the Six-Day War. Hence, by 1968, Jews of North African origin comprised the majority of the Jewish population of France. As these new immigrants were already culturally French they needed little time to adjust to French society. French law made it easy for thousands of settlers ( colons in French), national French from former colonies of North and East Africa , India and Indochina to live in mainland France. It
9936-583: The Roman army and obtained important commands. Their language is still spoken as a kind of Dutch ( French Flemish ) in northern France ( French Flanders ). The Alamans , another Germanic people immigrated to Alsace , hence the Alemannic German now spoken there. The Alamans were competitors of the Franks, and their name is the origin of the French word for "German": Allemand . By the early 6th century,
10074-494: The Spanish nation-state, in this case not on a uniform ethnic basis, but through the imposition of the political and cultural characteristics of the dominant ethnic group, in this case the Castilians, over those of other ethnic groups, who became national minorities to be assimilated. In fact, since the political unification of 1714, Spanish assimilation policies towards Catalan-speaking territories ( Catalonia , Valencia ,
10212-495: The State. Although official Spanish history describes a "natural" decline of the Catalan language and increasing replacement by Spanish between the 16th and 19th centuries, especially among the upper classes, a survey of language usage in 1807, commissioned by Napoleon , indicates that except in the royal courts, Spanish is absent from everyday life. It is indicated that Catalan "is taught in schools, printed and spoken, not only among
10350-682: The US and the UK) but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration. Historically, the heritage of the French people is mostly of Celtic or Gallic , Latin ( Romans ) origin, descending from the ancient and medieval populations of Gauls or Celts from the Atlantic to the Rhone Alps , Germanic tribes that settled France from east of the Rhine and Belgium after
10488-575: The Vatican itself were occupied and absorbed by Italy by 1870. The resulting Roman Question was resolved with the rise of the modern state under the 1929 Lateran treaties between Italy and the Holy See .) "Legitimate states that govern effectively and dynamic industrial economies are widely regarded today [2004] as the defining characteristics of a modern nation-state." Nation-states have their characteristics differing from pre-national states. For
10626-447: The behest of the sultan and generally only required a tax from the lower classes, instead of military service and/or manual labour like in the feudal system. Governments can also be categorized based on their size and scope of influence: Certain major characteristics are defining of certain types; others are historically associated with certain types of government. This list focuses on differing approaches that political systems take to
10764-453: The belief about the origination of political authority, who may participate in matters of state, how people might participate, the determination of what is just, and so forth. Index of Forms of Government. Systems resembling anarchism can be a natural, temporary result of civil war in a country, when an established state has been destroyed and the region is in a transitional period without definitive leadership. It has also been proposed as
10902-575: The centuries of the Abbasid - Mamluk Caliphate since the Mongols' sacking of Baghdad and the killing of the last Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, Iraq 1258. The Ottoman Caliphate as an office of the Ottoman Empire was abolished under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924 as part of Atatürk's Reforms . Some of the smaller European states were not so ethnically diverse but were also dynastic states ruled by
11040-447: The centuries to France, creating a variegated grouping of peoples. Thus the historian John F. Drinkwater states, "The French are, paradoxically, strongly conscious of belonging to a single nation, but they hardly constitute a unified ethnic group by any scientific gauge." The modern French are the descendants of mixtures including Romans , Celts , Iberians , Ligurians and Greeks in southern France, Germanic peoples arriving at
11178-626: The chance to change things. An oligarchy does not have to be hereditary or monarchic. An oligarchy does not have one clear ruler but several rulers. ( Ancient Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía) literally meant rule by few") Some historical examples of oligarchy include the Roman Republic , in which only males of the nobility could run for office and only wealthy males could vote, and the Athenian democracy , which used sortition to elect candidates, almost always male, Greek, educated citizens holding
11316-519: The civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992–95, resulting in mass population displacements and segregation that radically altered what was once a highly diverse and intermixed ethnic makeup of the region. These conflicts were mainly about creating a new political framework of states, each of which would be ethnically and politically homogeneous. Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks insisted they were ethnically distinct, although many communities had
11454-529: The colonial link between France and Algeria. A small French descent group also subsequently arrived from Latin America ( Argentina , Chile and Uruguay ) in the 1970s. Most French people speak the French language as their mother tongue , but certain languages like Norman , Occitan languages , Corsican , Euskara , French Flemish and Breton remain spoken in certain regions (see Language policy in France ). There have also been periods of history when
11592-515: The creation of a national identity under this theory. Some nation-states, such as Germany and Italy , came into existence at least partly as a result of political campaigns by nationalists during the 19th century. In both cases, the territory was previously divided among other states, some very small. At first, the sense of common identity was a cultural movement, such as in the Völkisch movement in German-speaking states, which rapidly acquired
11730-542: 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. The notion of a unifying "national identity" also extends to countries that host multiple ethnic or language groups, such as India . For example, Switzerland
11868-600: The decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture: the Franks , from which the word "French" derives. The Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands and Germany between the 3rd and 7th centuries. Initially, they served in
12006-425: The definition of the French nation and therefore of the French people. The decrees of 24 October 1870 by Adolphe Crémieux granted automatic and massive French citizenship to all Jewish people of Algeria. Successive waves of immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries were rapidly assimilated into French culture . France's population dynamics began to change in the middle of the 19th century, as France joined
12144-407: The distribution of sovereignty , and the autonomy of regions within the state. These have no conclusive historical or current examples outside of speculation and scholarly debate. While retaining some semblance of republican government, a corporate republic would be run primarily like a business , involving a board of directors and executives . Utilities , including hospitals , schools ,
12282-428: The elderly. Social democracy is connected with the trade union labour movement and supports collective bargaining rights for workers. Contemporary social democracy advocates freedom from discrimination based on differences of: ability/disability, age, ethnicity, sex, language, religion, and social class. Oligarchies are societies controlled and organised by a small class of privileged people, with no intervention from
12420-416: The end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks and the Burgundians , and some Vikings who mixed with the Normans and settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century. According to Dominique Schnapper , "The classical conception of the nation is that of an entity which, opposed to the ethnic group, affirms itself as an open community, the will to live together expressing itself by the acceptation of
12558-473: The fall of the Roman Empire such as the Franks , Burgundians , Allemanni , Visigoths , and Suebi , Latin and Roman tribes such as Ligurians and Gallo-Romans , Basques , and Norse populations largely settling in Normandy at the beginning of the 10th century as well as " Bretons " (Celtic Britons) settling in Brittany in Western France . The name "France" etymologically derives from
12696-560: The first article of the French Constitution , is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion ( sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion ). According to its principles, France has devoted itself to the destiny of a proposition nation , a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live together, as defined by Ernest Renan 's " plébiscite de tous les jours " ('everyday plebiscite') on
12834-1006: The first of those that needed to be exterminated. There were even public proposals for the repression of whole Catalonia, and even the extermination of Catalans, such as that of Juan Pujol, Head of Press and Propaganda of the Junta de Defensa Nacional during the Spanish Civil War , in La Voz de España , or that of Queipo de Llano , in a radio address in 1936, among others. List of forms of government This article lists forms of government and political systems , which are not mutually exclusive , and often have much overlap. According to Yale professor Juan José Linz there are three main types of political systems today: democracies , totalitarian regimes and, sitting between these two, authoritarian regimes with hybrid regimes . Another modern classification system includes monarchies as
12972-407: The formal government. These are terms that highlight certain actions of the governors, such as corruption , demagoguery , or fear mongering that may disrupt the intended way of working of the government if they are widespread enough. The Polity IV dataset recognizes anocracy as a category. In that dataset, anocracies are exactly in the middle between autocracies and democracies. Often the word
13110-649: The frequency of nation-state creation to processes of diffusion that emanate from international organizations. In Europe , during the 18th century, the classic non-national states were the multiethnic empires , the Austrian Empire , the Kingdom of France (and its empire ), the Kingdom of Hungary , the Russian Empire , the Portuguese Empire , the Spanish Empire , the Ottoman Empire ,
13248-405: The impressions surrounding the characters of " nation ", " (sovereign) state ", "nation-state", and " nationalism ". Connor, who gave the term " ethnonationalism " wide currency, also discusses the tendency to confuse nation and state and the treatment of all states as if nation states. The origins and early history of nation-states are disputed. A major theoretical question is: "Which came first,
13386-635: The inhabitants shared the language of the surrounding region. In some cases, these states were overthrown by nationalist uprisings in the 19th century. Liberal ideas of free trade played a role in German unification, which was preceded by a customs union , the Zollverein . However, the Austro-Prussian War and the German alliances in the Franco-Prussian War were decisive in the unification. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and
13524-509: The island of Saint-Martin hold French nationality even though they do not speak French as a first language, while their neighbouring French-speaking Haitian immigrants (who also speak a French-creole) remain foreigners. Large numbers of people of French ancestry outside Europe speak other first languages, particularly English, throughout most of North America (with Quebec and Acadians in the Canadian Maritimes being notable, not
13662-414: 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 tolls . In Germany, that process, the creation of the Zollverein , preceded formal national unity. Nation states typically have
13800-471: The lower class, but also among people of first quality, also in social gatherings, as in visits and congresses", indicating that it is spoken everywhere "except in the royal courts". He also indicates that Catalan is also spoken "in the Kingdom of Valencia, in the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Sardinia, Corsica and much of Sicily, in the Vall of Aran and Cerdaña". The nationalization process accelerated in
13938-403: The monarch, who mostly rule kingdoms. The actual role of the monarch and other members of royalty varies from purely symbolical ( crowned republic ) to partial and restricted ( constitutional monarchy ) to completely despotic ( absolute monarchy ). Traditionally and in most cases, the post of the monarch is inherited , but there are also elective monarchies where the monarch is elected. Rule by
14076-694: The most infamous secret society is the Illuminati , who had in their general statutes, "The order of the day is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." Secret societies are illegal in several countries, including Italy and Poland , who ban secret political parties and political organizations in their constitutions. Secret societies are often portrayed in fiction settings. Some examples from popular culture include: Magocracies are portrayed primarily in fiction and fantasy settings. Some examples from popular culture include: Synthetic technocracy
14214-437: The most part of society; this small elite is defined as sharing some common trait. De jure democratic governments with a de facto oligarchy are ruled by a small group of segregated, powerful or influential people who usually share similar interests or family relations. These people may spread power and elect candidates equally or not equally. An oligarchy is different from a true democracy because very few people are given
14352-448: The nation makes the State. I think the opposite. The State makes the nation. A strong State, which imposes its language, culture, education. The turn of the 20th century, and the first half of that century, have seen the most ethnic violence, coinciding with a racism that even came to identify states with races; in the case of Spain, with a supposed Spanish race sublimated in Castilian, of which national minorities were degenerate forms, and
14490-529: The nation or the nation-state?" Scholars such as Steven Weber , David Woodward , Michel Foucault and Jeremy Black have advanced the hypothesis that the nation-state did not arise out of political ingenuity or an unknown undetermined source, nor was it a political invention; rather, it is an inadvertent by-product of 15th-century intellectual discoveries in political economy , capitalism , mercantilism , political geography , and geography combined with cartography and advances in map-making technologies . It
14628-531: The nation-state as a 19th-century European phenomenon facilitated by developments such as state-mandated education, mass literacy and mass media . However, historians also note the early emergence of a relatively unified state and identity in Portugal and the Dutch Republic , and some date the emergence of nations even earlier. Adrian Hastings , for instance, argued that Ancient Israel as depicted in
14766-541: The nation-state, but the nation-state meets the criteria for its component states (by assuming that there is no disputed territory). Before the Westphalian system, the closest geopolitical system was the "Chanyuan system" established in East Asia in 1005 through the Treaty of Chanyuan , which, like the Westphalian peace treaties, designated national borders between the independent regimes of China's Song dynasty and
14904-656: The nations of Austria , Czech Republic , Hungary , Slovakia , Serbia and Romania . Some of them, coming from French-speaking communes in Lorraine or being French Swiss Walsers from the Valais canton in Switzerland , maintained for some generations the French language and a specific ethnic identity, later labelled as Banat (French: Français du Banat ). By 1788, there were eight villages populated by French colonists. The French First Republic appeared following
15042-476: The northwestern region of Brittany , although this is not the result of a survival of Gaulish language but of a 5th-century AD migration of Brythonic speaking Celts from Britain . The Vulgar Latin in the region of Gallia took on a distinctly local character, some of which is attested in graffiti, which evolved into the Gallo-Romance dialects which include French and its closest relatives. With
15180-588: The number of Italian speakers in Italy was even lower at the time of Italian unification , similar arguments have been made regarding the modern Italian nation, with both the French and the Italian states promoting the replacement of various regional dialects and languages with standardized dialects . The introduction of conscription and the Third Republic 's 1880s laws on public instruction facilitated
15318-604: The one hand, the Hegelian doctrine of the absolutism of the state is felt. The State originates in the Nation, educates and shapes the mentality of the individual; is, in Mussolini's words, the soul of the soul» And will be found again two hundred years later, from the socialist Josep Borrell : The modern history of Spain is an unfortunate history that meant that we did not consolidate a modern State. Independenceists think that
15456-467: The only, exceptions), Spanish or Portuguese in southern South America , and Afrikaans in South Africa . The adjective "French" can be used to mean either "French citizen" or "French-speaker", and usage varies depending on the context, with the former being common in France. The latter meaning is often used in Canada, when discussing matters internal to Canada. Generations of settlers have migrated over
15594-691: The other powers of the world. ..". After the dynastic union of the Catholic Monarchs in the 15th century, the Spanish Monarchy ruled over different kingdoms, each with its own cultural, linguistic and political particularities, and the kings had to swear by the Laws of each territory before the respective Parliaments . Forming the Spanish Empire , at this time the Hispanic Monarchy had its maximum territorial expansion. After
15732-414: The people rule, as republican forms of government. These categories are not exclusive. A semi-presidential republic is a government system with power divided between a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government, used in countries like France , Portugal , and Ukraine . The president, elected by the people, symbolizes national unity and foreign policy while the prime minister
15870-422: 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
16008-503: The population, are the largest ethnic minority in Israel. Israel also has very small communities of Armenians , Circassians , Assyrians , Samaritans . There are also some non-Jewish spouses of Israeli Jews. However, these communities are very small, and usually number only in the hundreds or thousands. The Kingdom of the Netherlands presents an unusual example in which one kingdom represents four distinct countries. The four countries of
16146-413: The post-war era. Non-state actors, such as international corporations and non-governmental organizations , are widely seen as eroding the economic and political power of nation-states. According to Andreas Wimmer and Yuval Feinstein, nation-states tended to emerge when power shifts allowed nationalists to overthrow existing regimes or absorb existing administrative units. Xue Li and Alexander Hicks links
16284-438: The promise but not yet the actuality of an inclusive and effective political economy, and threatens members of the established elite; and is therefore very vulnerable to disruption and armed violence. Countries with monarchy attributes are those where a family or group of families (rarely another type of group), called the royalty , represents national identity, with power traditionally assigned to one of its individuals, called
16422-465: The publication La Correspondencia militar : "The Catalan problem is not solved, well, by freedom, but by restriction; not by palliatives and pacts, but by iron and fire". Another came from important Spanish intellectuals, such as Pio Baroja and Blasco Ibáñez , calling the Catalans " Jews ", considered a serious insult at that time when racism was gaining strength. Building the nation (as in France , it
16560-421: The rules of a unified public domain which transcends all particularisms". This conception of the nation as being composed by a "will to live together," supported by the classic lecture of Ernest Renan in 1882, has been opposed by the French far-right , in particular the nationalist Front National ("National Front" – FN / now Rassemblement National - "National Rally" - RN) party which claims that there
16698-410: The semi-nomadic Liao dynasty . This system was copied and developed in East Asia in the following centuries until the establishment of the pan-Eurasian Mongol Empire in the 13th century. The nation-state received a philosophical underpinning in the era of Romanticism , at first as the "natural" expression of the individual peoples ( romantic nationalism : see Johann Gottlieb Fichte 's conception of
16836-411: The sense of a common ethnicity , may include a diaspora or refugees who live outside the nation-state; some nations of this sense do not have a state where that ethnicity predominates. In a more general sense, a nation-state is simply a large, politically sovereign country or administrative territory. A nation-state may be contrasted with: This article mainly discusses the more specific definition of
16974-515: The south-east which had already been conquered about one century earlier. Over the next six centuries, the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture . In the late Roman era, in addition to colonists from elsewhere in the Empire and Gaulish natives, Gallia also became home to some immigrant populations of Germanic and Scythian origin, such as the Alans . The Gaulish language
17112-639: The state sector (though not as trainees in reserved branches, e.g., as magistrates ). Seeing itself as an inclusive nation with universal values, France has always valued and strongly advocated assimilation . However, the success of such assimilation has recently been called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves ( communautarisme ). The 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs ( les quartiers sensibles ) were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts (as appeared before in other countries like
17250-464: The strong ties they may have to particular forms of government can cause them to be considered as forms of government in themselves. These categories are not exclusive. A similar system is the Iqta‘ , used by medieval Islamic societies of the middle east and north Africa. This functioned much like the feudal system but generally had titles that weren't granted to a family dynasty but to individuals at
17388-448: The view of "a unified territory (one land since the beginning of civilization) and a unified people" which de-emphasized "all disparities and the succession of waves of invaders" was first imprinted on the masses by the unified history curriculum of French textbooks in the late 1870s. Since the beginning of the Third Republic (1871–1940), the state has not categorized people according to their alleged ethnic origins. Hence, in contrast to
17526-522: The willingness to live together, in Renan's 1882 essay " Qu'est-ce qu'une nation? "). The debate concerning the integration of this view with the principles underlying the European Community remains open. France has been historically open to immigration, although this has changed in recent years. Referring to this perceived openness, Gertrude Stein , wrote: "America is my country but Paris
17664-524: The word Francia , the territory of the Franks . The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire . In the pre-Roman era, Gaul (an area of Western Europe that encompassed all of what is known today as France, Belgium, part of Germany and Switzerland, and Northern Italy) was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes . Their ancestors were Celts who came from Central Europe in
17802-711: Was founded as a Jewish state in 1948. Its " Basic Laws " describe it as both a Jewish and a democratic state. The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People (2018) explicitly specifies the nature of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people . According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , 75.7% of Israel's population are Jews. Arabs , who make up 20.4% of
17940-484: Was incorporated back into the royal domain (i. e. the territory under direct control of the French king) in the Middle Ages . In the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem , founded in 1099, at most 120,000 Franks, who were predominantly French -speaking Western Christians, ruled over 350,000 Muslims, Jews, and native Eastern Christians. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, France experienced relatively low levels of emigration to
18078-488: Was not the result of French nationalism , which would not emerge until the end of the 19th century, but rather the policies implemented by pre-existing French states. Many of these reforms were implemented since the French Revolution , at which time only half of the French people spoke some French – with only a quarter of those speaking the version of it found in literature and places of learning. As
18216-500: Was not usually used except in cities, and even there not always in the outlying districts . Abroad, the French language is spoken in many different countries – in particular the former French colonies . Nevertheless, speaking French is distinct from being a French citizen. Thus, francophonie , or the speaking of French, must not be confused with French citizenship or ethnicity. For example, French speakers in Switzerland are not "French citizens". Native English-speaking Blacks on
18354-641: Was officialized with Jacques Chirac 's family regrouping act of 1976 ( regroupement familial ). Since then, immigration has become more varied, although France stopped being a major immigration country compared to other European countries. The large impact of North African and Arab immigration is the greatest and has brought racial , socio-cultural and religious questions to a country seen as homogenously European, French and Christian for thousands of years. Nevertherless, according to Justin Vaïsse , professor at Sciences Po Paris , integration of Muslim immigrants
18492-418: Was partially reversed from the 1970s onward, with the introduction of various forms of regional autonomy , in formerly 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
18630-494: Was the state that created the nation, and not the opposite process) is an ideal that the Spanish elites constantly reiterated, and, one hundred years later than Alcalá Galiano, for example, we can also find it in the mouth of the fascist José Pemartín , who admired the German and Italian modeling policies: "There is an intimate and decisive dualism, both in Italian fascism and in German National Socialism. On
18768-403: Was unclear until the publication of a study in 2019 that used genome wide data. The study identified six different genetic clusters that could be distinguished across populations. The study concluded that the population genetic clusters correlate with linguistic and historical divisions in France and with the presence of geographic barriers such as mountains and major rivers. A population bottleneck
18906-783: Was usually, but not always, from that group. This type of state is not specifically European: such empires existed in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Chinese dynasties, such as the Tang dynasty , the Yuan dynasty , and the Qing dynasty , were all multiethnic regimes governed by a ruling ethnic group. In the three examples, their ruling ethnic groups were the Han-Chinese , Mongols , and the Manchus . In
19044-399: Was with these intellectual discoveries and technological advances that the nation-state arose. For others, the nation existed first, then nationalist movements arose for sovereignty , and the nation-state was created to meet that demand. Some " modernization theories " of nationalism see it as a product of government policies to unify and modernize an already existing state. Most theories see
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