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dwarves means “whole of the dwarves”
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But the Dwarves are divided into different Houses. It is not exactly nations but there are apparently differences between them, and the members of the same House share a degree of unity.
As best as I can understand the King of Durin's Folk has some degree of authority over all of the Longbeards, and I expect that it is the same in the other Houses, although this is more of a clanish or tribal system rather than a nation-state system.