Shared Political Ideals

The fourth assumption goes beyond a shared past or a shared land. While territory and a shared historical identity build a sense of oneness, it is a shared vision of the future — and the collective aspiration to have an independent political existence — that most distinguishes a nation from a mere group. Members of a nation share a vision of the kind of state they want to build; they affirm, among other things, a common set of values and principles, such as democracy, secularism and liberalism. These shared ideals represent the terms on which people are willing to come together and live together, and in that sense they form the group's political identity as a nation. …