Country vs State

English translation: territory vs organization

10:25 Oct 14, 2019
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Government / Politics
English term or phrase: Country vs State
Hello,

Could you please explain to me the difference between COUNTRY and STATE when discussing security?
What would be the implications of using one of the other in the context of politics.

I'm new to Proz, so if this topic was aleady covered, please let me know.
Thanks in advance!
Beata Now
Poland
Local time: 15:29
Selected answer:territory vs organization
Explanation:
"Country" generally refers to a territory with certain geographic borders, while "state" refers to a form of political organization. The word "state" is similar in meaning to the word "government". For example, we can say "state secret", which means governmental information that can't be disclosed to unauthorized public. But we can't say "country secret". However, "government" and "state" are also slightly different, because "state" is an organization, and "government" is a group of people.
Selected response from:

Alexander Gulevskiy
Local time: 15:29
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
3 +3territory vs organization
Alexander Gulevskiy
4 +1It all depends on the context
AllegroTrans
4 +1country vs state
Katya Kesten
4 -1A state is a sub-unit of a country
Larissa Hanko


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


1 day 6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
country vs state
A state is a sub-unit of a country


Explanation:
A country is a nation state. A state is an administrative sub-unit. For example, the USA is a nation state/country and Florida and California are states. The word "state" can also be used to describe a nation state though, so it's a matter of context and word usage.

This distinction is a feature of federalism, the division of a country into administrative sub-units. I see that you're from Poland, a country that does not have a federalist structure, so I can see how this concept can be alien at first. For details, please refer to the Wikipedia article on Federalism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism

In terms of security, since different states often have different laws and different levels of security screening, it can be necessary to screen people who come from different states as if they came from different countries.

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Note added at 1 day 16 mins (2019-10-15 10:42:02 GMT)
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Got a little ahead of myself with the point on Poland, sorry. Non-federalist states CAN still have sub-units, but those have less autonomy from the national government, so the differentiation into states is of less importance. In a federalist country, states have a greater ability to create their own laws, so there can be greater differences in security measures. For example, in (federalist) Germany the different states have very different levels of surveillance of communication.

Larissa Hanko
Germany
Local time: 15:29
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  AllegroTrans: Only in certain countries (e.g. USA); countries are often called states (cf. EU member states)
11 hrs
  -> I mentioned that in my answer, but if the words were used synonymously here, the question wouldn't make sense.
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1 day 4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
country vs state
territory vs organization


Explanation:
"Country" generally refers to a territory with certain geographic borders, while "state" refers to a form of political organization. The word "state" is similar in meaning to the word "government". For example, we can say "state secret", which means governmental information that can't be disclosed to unauthorized public. But we can't say "country secret". However, "government" and "state" are also slightly different, because "state" is an organization, and "government" is a group of people.

Alexander Gulevskiy
Local time: 15:29
Works in field
Native speaker of: Russian
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Tony M: And 'country' is sometimes used to refer to 'the people', in which sense it oppose the 'State', which as you say = pretty much 'the Government'
19 mins
  -> Thank you! That's true.

neutral  AllegroTrans: Not necessarily
7 hrs

agree  Roberto Govia: yup
32 days

agree  Viktoriia Horiachko
272 days
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1 day 11 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
country vs state
It all depends on the context


Explanation:
Countries are often referred to as states
Cf. nation state, member states of the EU

Some countries have states within them, the USA is the classic example
Switzerland is a confederation of states - one of them (Geneva) is even called a "republic and canton"

So there is no clear-cut answer

In the asker's context, we speak for example of "state security" and "state secrecy"

In politics, it all depends on the speaker/writer and the precise context. Often the two words are interchangable.

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:29
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 24

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: ah yes, context!
61 days
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5 days   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
country vs state
country vs state


Explanation:
There doesn’t seem to be a single agreed-upon definition. A country is usually a nation-state in which legislation can vary by province while a state can either be a sovereign country, or part of a federation. This is the clearest way I can think of putting it.

Katya Kesten
Local time: 09:29
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  AllegroTrans: Even this doesn't quite work: Wales is a country within the UK but only has a devolved legislature
3 days 1 hr
  -> I honestly think this is why there's no classic textbook definition (in modern society, things like this can be quite fluid/constantly changing) but it was the closest I could get to an "in general".
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