Sovereignty is a term denoting a supreme and final political authority over which there is no longer any power with respect to political decision-making and implementation. Along with population, territory and legal order, sovereignty is one of the essential features of the state. The difference between nation and people is the difference in the performance of sovereignty. Initially, the people used to designate an unauthorized part of the population, but today it denotes citizens - holders of sovereignty. Today, notions of nation and people are often synonymous, and more recently they are linked to the concept of nation-state. In a nation-state, the nation-state is no longer a mere random sum of all the members of one state, but the nation represents one together with a nation that is no longer just a cultural but also a political community. As such, the nation seeks to realize and develop in its own state; in a nation-state, it is free to rule itself and to be free from any foreign power.