Plurinational Democracy Stateless Nations in a Post-Sovereignty Era

Transnational integration and other challenges to the nation-state have deprived it of its mystique and broken the automatic link between state and nation. This has encouraged the revival of stateless nationalisms, but also provided new means for their accommodation. The author argues that these changes call for a radical rethinking of the nature of sovereignty and of the state itself to meet the twin challenges of recognition of nationality and of democracy. Drawing on the experience of four plurinational state - United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Canada - and of the European Union, he analyses the challenges of plurinationalism and its recognition.

Michael Keating is Professor of Regional Studies at the European University Institute, Florence; and Professor of Scottish Politics at the University of Aberdeen.