What is the definition of both the state and the nation? How did these two concepts emerge – and what explains their comparative advantage in supplanting alternative forms of political organization and identity? This chapter critically reviews the scholarly literature on these questions, placing a particular emphasis on how the state and the nation are “built,” and arguing that questions of bureaucratic selection constitute the key element of state-building. The chapter concludes by developing a theory about the relationship between rulers’ efforts at state-building and nation-building.