Restructuring Territoriality

The bundling of political authority into mutually exclusive territorial boundaries - territoriality - is a fundamental principle of modern political organization. Indeed it provides the foundation for other cherished institutions - national sovereignty citizenship the modern welfare state and democracy. Are globalization internationalization and Europeanization conspiring to unbundle territoriality? If so are sovereignty citizenship the welfare state and democracy unravelling as well? Is a new post-national non-territorial form of political organization heralded by the European Union being born? With a focus on Europe this volume explores these issues from various substantive and theoretical perspectives. The authors find evidence of the diffusion of authority both within and beyond the state producing novel institutional arrangements and new modes of governance. But the United States may provide more useful insights into the new dispensation than the idea of a post-national non-territorial politics. Interest in contemporary challenges to democracy run throughout this volume.