This distinction is a product of the essential incoherence of the nation-state, which joins the nation, a political community whose boundaries are determined by its members, to the state, a legal form in which membership (citizenship) is determined by law. These two objects, state and nation, are necessarily incompatible, for the purpose of the state is to apply law equally to all members, while the purpose of the nation is to protect and valorize only members of the nation.
