The forms which these grades of progress assume are the characteristic "National Spirits" of History; the peculiar tenor of their moral life of their Government, their Art, Religion, and Sciences.

             The idea of a "national spirit" is a controversial one. As a figure of speech, one can say that America is generous, Germany is industrious, and France is amorous. But Hegel means a great deal more than this. First of all, he intends to say that "national spirit," as it is found in each country, is real. It is not a metaphor, nor is it just a shorthand device for making a complicated point in a simple way. The spirit or genius of a nation is no less real than the Idea of which it is an expression. Furthermore, the national spirit is the best place to observe the unfolding of the Idea in the actual world: the stages of development attained by a nation's art, religion, and science are the clearest manifestation of its progress through history. To speak of a nation as if it were a person is to show that it has a capacity for self-consciousness and growth: men and nations both stand in integral relation to the Idea, and they participate in its workings through the dialectic.

             In the Philosophy of Right, and in far greater detail in the Introduction to the Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, Hegel argues that the network of governmental institutions of the state-- its constitution-- is typically a product of history and expresses the culture of a particular nation-- its values, religious beliefs, views about the world, traditions and customs. That culture, or "spirit", of the nation permeates also the human relations and gives the whole unity and cohesion. The values of the national community and the operation of its central government are linked together through mediating institutions, such as corporations, estates and the representative system, which ensure that the activities of the government broadly express the basic ideals and interests of groups within the community or its individual members.