The imperial city-state and the national state form

Reflections on the history of the contemporary order

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4836730
AutoresSandra Halperin (0000-0003-3556-2540, Royal Holloway University of London, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen139
Número1
Páginas97-112
Fecha de publicación2017-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0725513617700455
OpenAlexW2606939959
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas35

This contribution argues, first, that pre-national forms of state were not displaced or supplanted by a new, national form. What we call the nation-state was not the successor to imperial or city-states but was itself a form of the European imperial city-states that had driven the expansion of capitalism in previous centuries. It argues, second, that national states emerged only after 1945 and only in a handful of states where, through welfare reforms and market and industry regulation, investment and production were made to serve the expansion and integration of national markets. Third, with the dismantling of Keynesian policies in these states, pre-national (pre-Keynesian) structures are resurfacing. What scholars describe as the emergence of 'post-national spatialities' and of 'global cities' and city regions represents the resurgence of a durable and historically dominant form of state: the imperial city-state form. The 're-scaling' of nation-states and growing prominence of 'global cities' and 'city regions' are heralding the end of the brief history of actually existing nation-states and the re-deployment of the imperial city-state model

Capitalism · City-state · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State capitalism · Successor cardinal · Welfare state · Global Urban Networks and Dynamics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Urban Planning and Governance