Sovereignty and the State

The core concepts of the state itself: sovereignty as the supreme, final authority a state holds over its territory and population, the state as a distinct concept from a government, a nation or a country, and self-determination as a people's claim to decide its own political status and territorial arrangement. Belongs here: a concept describing what a state is or what supreme authority over a territory consists of. Does not belong here: a theory of why a government's exercise of that authority counts as legitimate, grouped under Legitimacy and Political Authority.