List of 70 National Things

John Spacey, updated on October 17, 2024

National things are elements of a country that shape its identity, character and culture. This includes symbols of a nation such as a flag or a historical leader. National things also encompass the general character of the people of a nation and prominent elements of the national culture.

All (70)

National Symbols (16)

National Character (25)

National Culture (29)

Art	Beverages
Ceremonies	Collectivism vs Individualism
Crafts	Cuisine
Cultural Figures	Cultural Icons
Customs & Traditions	Dance
Digital Culture	Direct vs Indirect Communication
Fashions	Festivals
Films	Foods
Founding Fathers	Future vs Past Orientation
Games	Historical Leaders
History	Humane Orientation
Indulgence vs Restraint	Languages
Literature	Logical vs Affective
Long-Term Orientation	Masculinity vs Femininity
Media Culture	Music
National Animal	National Anthem
National Colors (Flag Colors)	National Emblem
National Flag	National Flower
National Heritage	National Heroes
National Holidays	National Identity
National Monuments	National Motto
National Pastimes	National Pride
National Tree	National Unity
Norms	Openness to Change
Outgoing vs Reserved	Performance Arts
Political Leaders	Power Distance
Religions	Rites of Passage
Rituals	Saving Face vs Candor
Sense of Aesthetics	Sense of Time
Sense of Tradition	Short-Term Orientation
Sports	Sports Heroes
Stories, Myths & Legends	Traditional Clothing
Uncertainty Avoidance	Universalism vs Particularism
Values & Beliefs	Way of Life
Worldview	Youth Culture

Definitions

A few definitions for elements of the list above that may not be common terms:

Power Distance

The degree to which people respect hierarchical power structures and are unwilling to challenge such structures.

Uncertainty Avoidance

A tendency to avoid risk and choose familiar and well-defined options.

Universalism

The belief that there are general principles that are broadly applicable.

Particularism

The belief that every situation and individual are different and a tendency to reject general principles.

National Character

Character is fundamentally a personal thing that captures the personality and way of thinking of a person. However, it is common to apply this concept to nations whereby there are measurable differences in the way that the populations of nations tend to think.

This is researched and measured with models such as Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory, Trompenaars' Model of National Culture, Schwartz's Value Theory and the Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map.

Hofstede's Theory is particularly interesting as it measures things like power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation that are intuitively different across cultures. This can be approximated for nations with survey questions applied to cohorts designed to be representative of their populations.

For example, the United States is an outlier with very high individualism. These studies are useful in thinking about cultural differences for situations such as international business whereby cooperation requires understanding the common ways of thinking that emerge in a particular nation and culture.

Next read: Power Distance

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