Sieyés makes explicit law plus a legislature the formal precondition for nationhood.

Evidence

If there is to be a nation, there must, according to Sieyés, be explicit laws, and agencies to formulate them. The law-legislature couple is the formal precondition for the existence of a nation. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 6217

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets out Sieyés’ formal (law-legislature) vs. substantive (works and functions) preconditions for nationhood — a key definitional move for the imagined-community toolkit.
• XREF: Plugs into Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities and the later Islamophobia readings on how the nation as a category is constituted.