An empire is typically includes a variety of different cultures or peoples that were at one point conquered or absorbed by the expanding empire, ruled by one emperor or monarch. A nation-state is typically a smaller region, often united by one common culture, ethnicity, and language and can have many different kinds of rulers, democratically appointed or otherwise. Benedict Anderson calls the nation-state an imagined community because, unlike in a heterogeneous empire, people in a homogeneous nation-state see themselves as all belonging to the same community because of common experiences and backgrounds.