In the context of law and governance the word “country” means something very different from what many citizens believe it means. This article: The Framework For Law And Governance explains in detail the relationship of a country to its citizens.
A country is a polity. Below is the definition of the word polity.
A word that is very closely linked with polity is policy. A country is run under the policies of its political leaders, and the police ensure conformity to the politiespolicies. The root word for all of these similar sounding words above is: polis; which means city, state.
In terms of law and governance a country is a polity which is a (body politic) political organisation of the public body as a whole, who are the state. At law a country is what is known as a legal fiction and or “person“.