Google gave me a few different answers when I googled “is the UK a country”. It said that the UK is:
1. A country
2. An island country
3. A unique country
4. A sovereign state
When I googled if England was a country, most answers said yes, but some said no because it fails to meet all the criteria of an independent country. One source said, “*Although England operates as a semi-autonomous region, it is not officially an independent country and instead is part of the **country** known as the United Kingdom*”
If England isn’t a country, then what is it?
If the UK isn’t a country, then what is it?
If they are both countries, how is it possible to have a country of countries?
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When people say “country” they’re referring to a sovereign state. “Sovereign” means possessing ultimate power, such that the government of that state answers to no higher authority.
For example, if the U.K. passes a law that says you can’t restrict abortion access, Scotland couldn’t pass a law restricting abortion access because the U.K. parliament is the ultimate authority. Therefore, Scotland is not a sovereign state and is not considered a country.
While not perfectly analogous, it’s similar to states in the U.S. Yes, the states have control over certain aspects of how state governments are run (e.g., criminal laws, police, state taxation, etc.), but the U.S. federal government has ultimate authority (constrained only in certain circumstances by the Constitution). That’s why California is a “state” and not a “country,” despite the fact that it has a larger population and economy than most countries.
A counter example is the European Union. While the European Union has certain rules that member countries must abide by if they want to remain in the EU, those member countries are still sovereign states because at any time they can choose to simply leave the EU if they don’t like the EU rules (*e.g.*, Brexit). A U.S. state, or Scotland, England, Wales, etc., can’t just *choose* to leave the U.S. or U.K. For example, if Texas had a state referendum and voted to secede from the U.S., the federal government would basically say “that’s cute, you’re still a U.S. state and if you don’t abide by our rules we will send the army in and force you to.” That’s basically what happened with the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War–the confederates said “we’re seceding” and the union (*i.e.,* the U.S. government) said “no you’re not.”
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