A nation is a peculiar sort of community as

A. It is easy to describe but hard to define
B. It is easy to define but hard to describe
C. For every possible criterion, there are exceptions and counter examples
D. Members of the nation desire to be a part of the same political collectivity
E. Nation are not communities

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

A, C and D only

The correct answer is Option (2) → A, C and D only

At the simplest level, a nation is a sort of large-scale community – it is a community of communities (E is incorrect). Members of a nation share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity (D). This desire for political unity usually expresses itself as the aspiration to form a state. In its most general sense, the term state refers to an abstract entity consisting of a set of political-legal institutions claiming control over a particular geographical territory and the people living in it. In Max Weber’s well-known definition, a state is a “body that successfully claims a monopoly of legitimate force in a particular territory”

A nation is a peculiar sort of community that is easy to describe but hard to define (A is correct while B is incorrect). We know and can describe many specific nations founded on the basis of common cultural, historical and political institutions like a shared religion, language, ethnicity, history or regional culture. But it is hard to come up with any defining features, any characteristics that a nation must possess. For every possible criterion there are exceptions and counter-examples (C). For example, there are many nations that do not share a single common language, religion, ethnicity and so on. On the other hand, there are many languages, religions or ethnicities that are shared across nations. But this does not lead to the formation of a single unified nation of, say, all English speakers or of all Buddhists.