Answer to Question 1
The state is an abstraction. In contrast, a government is a concrete organization that has the authority to act on behalf of a state, and the set of people who have the right to make decisions that affect everyone in a state. The state is like an image or idea of a territory and the practices, institutions, and traditions of the people within that territory. For this reason, many countries separate the head of state from the head of government. In Japan, the head of state is Emperor Akihito, who publicly personifies and represents the spirit of the national community; he also upholds that community's legitimacy. In contrast, the prime minister of Japan is the chief executive officer of the government administration.
Answer to Question 2
Nations do not have the organizational and institutional characteristics of statesfor example, they do not have administrative officials, clear membership rules, or mapped boundaries. More important, they do not possess sovereignty, and they do not claim a monopoly on the legitimate use of force over their own people. Without a state, nations lack political autonomy.
Using outgroups to infer the ancestral state
Human infants are like all other placental mammals, except they are born at a less developed state.
National Guardsmen firing into a crowd of antiwar protesters at Kent State University killed four ...
State Laws on Abortion prior to Roe v. Wade, 1973
Abortion Rates by State, 2008
American Government: Roots and Reform, 2009 Edition