ลักษณะเด่นของ รัฐ ชาติ ประเทศ

[เปิ้ล pupplesg@hotmail.com]

ลักษณะของ รัฐ ชาติ ประเทศ เป็นอย่างไรคะ แล้ว แต่ละอย่างหมายความว่าอย่างไร

[N.K.Kh.]

I have already forgotten most of PolSci 101 that I learned longtime ago. So this is only my own understanding:-

Loosely, the three terms Ratha (State), Chati (Nation) and Prates (Country) are interchangable. There are also other words such as Rathachat (nation-state) or prateschat. In international law if I remember correctly, a state or nation-state , a political unit under international law, must have four attributions. It must have a certain land or territory under its jurisdiction; it must have certain amount of people or a population as its citizens; it must have its own government; and that government must have full power to rule within that state - something we call sovereignty.

To my mind, each word you ask stresses different aspect of statehood. Ratha or Rathachat stresses the fact of being a sovereign political unit. Chati stresses the importance or the people or the citizenry. Jati in Pali means "origin, birth" , and the word chat (i) in Thai orginnally signifies a group of people with common origin. (We also have the word Prachachat.) It gives the sense of a  group of people bound together into a community with common roots and common destiny. Prates stresses the country, the land or the territory, the base of all these concepts. "Desh" in Pali means "place". We also have the concept of "motherland" All these are important aspects of statehood.