Alternative to 'Nation - state' is :

The correct answer is Option (3) → State - Nation

Option (1) Nation — Incorrect. At the simplest level, a nation is a sort of large-scale community, a community of communities, whose members share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity. It is one of the two parts that a nation-state joins together, not an alternative to it.

Option (2) State — Incorrect. The state is an abstract entity: a set of political-legal institutions claiming control over a particular geographical territory and the people living in it. It is the other part of the nation-state, not an alternative to it.

Option (3) State - Nation — Correct. A nation-state ties one state to one nation. The alternative is the ‘state nation’, in which various ‘nations’, be they ethnic, religious, linguistic or indigenous identities, co-exist peacefully and cooperatively in a single state polity.

Option (4) Multicultural state — Incorrect. ‘Multicultural’ only describes a society of many cultures, which a nation-state may also rule over. The name for the arrangement that builds unity while keeping many ‘nations’ within one state is the state-nation.