The Congruence of State and Nation and its Effects on Economic Development of Societies: The Comparative – longitudinal Study during the Years between 1990 and 2004

Abstract

According to what has been observed in the history of different societies, the conflict between states and nations has always been one of the main problems societies have encountered whether they are developed or underdeveloped ones. The paper tries to study the effects of congruence of state and nation on economic development in the last years of the 20th century and the dawn of the new millennium. The present research is carried out on the basis of the comparative – longitudinal method in which secondary data obtained from 144 countries during the years between 1990 and 2004 have been analyzed. According to our results the congruence of state and nation has huge effects on economic development of societies directly and indirectly. Then in our research it was observed that in developed societies nation and state are more congruent than other societies in the world. Therefore it seems that among different patterns of relation between state and nation around the world the kind of relation that exists between state and nation in developed countries of Western Europe and North America is an interactive and mutual one. In these countries the state is responsible and accountable to the nation and in return the nation is obliged to associate and cooperate with the state. While in the underdeveloped countries of the world the kind of relation that exists between state and nation is a kind of conflict and struggle.

Keywords

• the congruence of state and nation
• economic development
• political development
• political stability
• immigration