In a federal system, the central (or federal) government has much more authority than in a confederal system. The central government controls more trade policy, and makes decisions about policy areas that involve interactions between states (such as highway systems).
Nationality is a legal relationship between an individual person and a state. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state. What these rights and duties are vary from state to state.
A nation is a system for classifying people, as are class, gender and so on. We often take these classifications to be ânaturalâ â ânationâ and ânaturalâ possess a common etymological root in the sense of âto be bornâ â but they can equally be seen as constructed.