Flags overwhelmingly represent nations, groups considering themselves nations, that were nations or have some kind of individual governmental status.
Flags overwhelmingly represent nations, groups considering themselves nations, that were nations or have some kind of individual governmental status.
Nations != governments.
“Nations” as synonym for country started appearing only recently, in last two/three hundred years.
Flags have thousands of years of history.
Flags also represent causes, or groups that don’t aspire to becoming a nation.
They don't at all. Consider for example that every single city, county and local council in the UK has a flag. There are flags for the United Nations, the European Union, Esperanto, every major football team and most political movements including the CND and anarchism.