Publisher's Synopsis
It is commonly claimed today that the 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 threat 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 states today (including some of great power and wealth) are failing badly to handle the problems of peace, civil 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. Even Great Powers fall as well as rise; and most states throughout most of history have 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 it is extremely difficult to focus it sufficiently clearly to permit a sober and accurate judgment of how far it is really justified. This is what the book hopes to achieve.
