Understanding the Human Element of the State: Population, People, and Nation

The Human Basis of the State: Population, People, and Nation

B) People.

It is the human basis of the state. A first concept may be: the set of individuals who are under state jurisdiction. However, it should distinguish between three concepts: population, people, and nation.

a) Population

When using this term, it is usually done with a mathematical or statistical sense. Population means here the sum of all the individuals who compose the nation. Numeric data is useful to quantify, measure, and classify the human component of the state. From this point of view, it relates to other concepts that also have a political impact, including: census, population of fact and law, birth rate, mortality, etc.

b) People

However, the concept of "people" goes beyond the simple statistical fact. It suggests the existence of other components, much harder to pin down, such as cultural unity, common historical roots, identification with the territory (place of origin and vital reference), a set of customs, traditions, religious beliefs more or less homogeneous, and the feeling of belonging to a community and its corresponding style or way of life.

c) Nation

For most authors, the concept of nation means, in addition to the above, or supplementing it, the existence of a consciousness of common destiny and a certain political vocation. In this sense, the Royal Academy Dictionary defines the nation as a "community of nations to which certain unity of territory, history, race, language, religion, and traditions, gives them a consciousness of common destiny." Typically, the Nation presupposes the existence of a "people" or natural community of people united by ties of cultural, historical, religious, etc. The next step, of course, after the first element, is the sentiment, widely shared, to live together with minimal legal and institutional organization. The nation is the natural foundation for establishing the State, although it is true that it can be grouped under their sovereignty is not one but two or more different nations, the result of such a form of state group: the multinational state.

As we address the relationship between the territory and the following discussion seeks to determine what may be the influence of population on the form of power. In this regard, there are three important considerations:

1. The importance of population size affects government policy. It is not the same government exercised over a small state in terms of the number of inhabitants on a large one (for Ratzgel a large state is one that exceeds one hundred million inhabitants, and smaller when the number is below ten million).
2. Also like to know how the internal distribution of that population within the territory of the State. It is especially important to reveal what are the sociopolitical implications of the distinction between rural and urban populations, since, as we know, this fact in many respects determines the type of policy to pursue, in addition to the potential importance since the electoral point of view (usually links a mentality more conservative rural areas while in urban areas the trend is usually progressive, although of course this is not always true in all cases).
3. From a legal relationship between the State and the people within the village or town determines a different legal status. Nationality is the legal status of a person bound to a particular state (a status that is the individual wherever it is found). Foreigners, although they may enjoy many of the rights recognized by the constitution to its nationals, have a different legal status, which prevents them, for example, from participating in elections for political representatives, but also, of course, exempted them from the fulfillment of certain duties, such as military service. Typically, the right of each country in its Civil Code regulates the form of acquisition, retention, and loss of nationality, as well as the possibilities of the state in every concrete case of dual nationality treaties with foreign countries.