Rescaling Europe

Abstract

The European nation-state as an ideal-type was a polity bounded by fixed borders, which enclosed an economy, a society, a system of representation and a demos. Normatively, it was supported as essential to democracy and social solidarity. In practice, states had to engage in strategies of territorial management in order to maintain their spatial integrity. From the late twentieth century, spatial rescaling at supranational and substate levels has produced a disjuncture of systems that previously coincided in the nation-state. This poses a Series of questions about democracy, efficacy in government and social solidarity.