When answering this question, you have to remember the
difference between a nation and a state in political science terminology. A nation is
not a country -- it is a group of people who identify with one another on ethnic
grounds. And a state is not a subset of a country (like Wisconsin or Washington). It
is, instead, an actual whole country.
So, using these
definitions, a multinational state is a country that has citizens of many different
ethnic groups. These ethnic groups would see themselves as fundamentally different from
other groups within their same country. The Soviet Union was a great example of this
because it encompassed many different nations (Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Russians,
etc).
A nation-state, by contrast, is one where the country
has only one ethnic group. Perhaps the clearest example of such a state today would be
Japan since only ethnic Japanese are considered to truly be full citizens of that
country.
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