Multinational State

A multinational state is a sovereign state which is viewed as comprising two or more nations. Such a state contrasts with a nation-state where a single nation comprises the bulk of the population. The United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and Canada are viewed as present-day examples of multinational states, while Austria-Hungary, British India, USSR and Yugoslavia are examples of historical multinational states which have since split into a number of sovereign states.

Depending on the definitions of such terms as "nation" a multinational state may or may not be multicultural and / or multilingual.

Many attempts have been made to define what a multinational state is. One complicating factor is that it is possible for many of the people of what can be considered a 'nation' to consider they have two different nationalities simultaneously. As Ilan Peleg has noted,

One can be a Scot and a Brit in the United Kingdom, a Jew and an American in the United States, an Igbo and a Nigerian in Nigeria... One might find it hard to be a Slovak and a Hungarian, an Arab and an Israeli, a Breton and a Frenchman.

Famous quotes containing the word state:

    Every country has its own constitution; ours is absolutism moderated by assassination.
    —Anonymous Russian. Quoted in Count Münster, Political Sketches of the State of Europe 1814-1867 (1868)