Contemporary crisis of the nation state

Pocketbok. Blackwell - Oxford UK & Cambridge USA. 1995. 237 sidor.

Mycket gott skick. It is commonly claimed today that nation state as a political structure confronts problems of the greatest urgency and importance which it cannot handle and which may well therefore menace its (and perhaps our) continued existence.

This book questions how far the first of these claims is true and how far, insofar as it is true, the resulting situation is genuinely novel or the treat itself is principally one to the nation state in particular (as opposed to the human species at large).

It is impossible to doubt that many state today (including some of the great power and wealth) are failing badly to handle the problems of peace, civilv order, personal commitment, popular welfare and economic competitivity, which their subjects need them to  handle.

But there is nothing historically novel about this state of affairs. Evan Great Powers fall as well as rise: and most states throughout most of history had been fairly squalid and ineffective.

The popular and journalistic conviction that the political institutions of even the most advanced states are at present in deep crisis is not entirely gratuitous. But is it extremely difficult to focus is sufficiently clearly to permit a sober and accurate judgment or how far it is really justified. This is what the book hopes to achieve.